Celestin
by Chosha Kurenai
Summary: 13 years after the dissappearence of the boy who lived, a dark wizard assassin has been killing former deatheaters. could this Celestin and the famous Harry Potter be one and the same?
1. The Boy Assassin

**Celestin**

**Chosha's notes**

_Hello, And welcome to Celestin! this is an AU fiction, An idea I've had for a while. Dunno how it'll turn out but I think its gonna be fun! It's a first full Harry potter story for me. I hope you like it! Anyway, enough from me, I'll let the story speak for itself..._

Dislcaimer: Harry Potter, in movie or book form, does not belong to me, but rather to JK Rowling-sama and Warner Bros. They own all rights and products, rather than lil' Chosha-chan.

**Chapter One**

**The Boy Assassin**

Diagon Alley was packed with people. It was hardly surprising, really, considering the sky was a clear azure and the summer sun shone soft beams that warmed everyone after a long season of rain. It was a relief to anyone – magic or muggle – to be outside again and blow away the cobwebs. Who knew when the weather would allow it again? Being as unpredictable as it was, it would hardly surprise anyone if it tried to soak everyone at a moment's notice. Also, the summer holidays had begun only a few weeks previously, so children of all ages raced around to the stores, faces pressed up against the windows to stare at the new racing broom, the Firebolt, that had only been created last year. Or they begged their parents for money to buy a pet, toys, books or Ice creams.

Lazing outside Florean Fortascue's Ice cream Parlour was a fourteen-year-old boy slumped on a steel chair, a half-eaten sundae standing on the table in front of him. Long, jet-black hair was tied back into a loose ponytail, bangs brushing the bottom of a creamy-white bandanna, marked by Celtic patterns in sapphire blue. His smooth features set in a softly tanned face were lifted towards the sun, while startling green eyes were half-lidded in a feeling of blissful warmth mixed with a little boredom. His white tank top bared sleek muscular arms, one draped across his stomach; the other leaned against the steel table, idly spooning the ice cream. On the chair beside him hung a deep crimson trench-coat and, lying across it was a strange, long and slim draw-string bag that looked as if it could be carrying some sort of instrument like a recorder, except it was easily several inches longer than his arm. If it were a muggle street, this might have drawn a few strange stares, but in the magical community of Diagon Alley, he barely got a glance, which was perfectly fine by him.

The boy sighed heavily and sank further into his chair, the spoon sticking out of his mouth and his eyes shut. Right then he could have thought of thousands of things he could have been doing than waiting around on a day like this. However, he had received an owl to meet up with an associate of his, who had a few pieces of news for him that he thought the boy would find interesting. If it got him another case, then the boy couldn't care less. He hated to stay idle. His upbringing wouldn't stand for that.

At fourteen years old, one wouldn't think he would be bothered about any type of job during holiday time. However, this particular fourteen-year-old was anything but ordinary…in more ways than one.

The boy listened as footsteps made their way towards him, but he didn't move until a shadow fell across him. He cracked open an eye. A tall man – around six-feet tall – stood over him. He was wearing sunglasses – the sort that cover most of your face – and whatever part of his face that wasn't covered was shadowed by a large, wide-brimmed hat. Despite the heat of the day, the man wore a long, grey trench coat that came to his ankles and delicate, pure-white gloves on his hands. Under one arm he carried a rolled up newspaper - the daily prophet, as the boy noted by the half-obscured title.

The man smiled when he noticed the green eye fixed on him. When he spoke, it wasn't in English, but Japanese, that came from his mouth, his voice silky, as if he could talk birds into his palms. 'Konnichiwa, Celestin-sama. I hope I haven't kept you waiting for too long.'

The boy, Celestin, let out a soft chuckle and motioned for the man to sit across from him, answering in kind. 'Not long, but you know me - I get impatient. You tried the ice cream here? They're delicious. Fortescue-san has been doing free refills.'

The man smiled a little, his pearl-white teeth glinting. 'I'm afraid I am not one for ice cream.'

Celestin shot him a sideways look. 'Only you wouldn't like ice cream, Marius.' He spooned a little more ice cream into his mouth, his eyes glinted questioningly. 'But what I wanna know is, out of all the languages you could have used, why in Merlin's name did you decide on Japanese?'

Marius entwined his gloved fingers and rested his chin on the tips. 'Mostly out of habit, I guess. After all,' he inclined his head towards the long package beside the boy, 'we did spend several years there recently.'

Celestin made a non-committal hum, before fixing the man with a glance. 'So, what's the occasion? Usually you don't contact me for a day meeting unless you found something worth while. You have a new job for me?'

'Better,' the man chuckled, throwing down the paper onto the table, the front page upwards. 'It seems as if your "fan club" has been writing up on you again.'

'Front page, too! I must say I'm honoured.' Celestin chuckled as he skim-read the page before him:

_Dark Wizard Found Dead_

_Another Wizard has been found murdered by the mysterious dark-wizard assassin yesterday evening, writes Rita Skeeter. Mr Mazrim Belvon, a wizard who has been charged several times for the possession of and dealings with dark items in the passed and was a suspected supporter of he-who-must-not-be-named, was found in his living-room dead. Deep lacerations in his neck and chest are thought to have been what caused his death, rather than the infamous Avada Kedavra, with the strange symbol of a winged sword found over the body. It is believed by Aurors that Belvon was the latest victim of the mysterious Justice-barer that has already targeted many former death-eaters and he-who-must-not-be-named's supporters, his numbers now ranging through double figures since the killings began around a year ago…_

Celestin chuckled darkly. 'Those people never seem to be able to make up their minds if I'm dark or not. Skeeter, hm? I must be on her good side today. I'm the 'Justice-barer' again. Look's like she had more issues with the guy we offed than with me, this time.' He smirked. 'Y'know, I wish they would make up their minds. One of these days I might get all confused about who the bad-guys are.'

'Of course,' Marius said fondly.

Celestin leaned back on his chair, hands behind his head. 'You mentioned another job for me?'

Marius flipped through the prophet's pages towards the middle, then slid it across the table to the boy, who peered at it with interest. He smiled at what he saw. 'So, the long-awaited finals of the Quidditch world cup are being held here in England. A very large gathering…'

'A perfect opportunity for a reunion.'

Emerald eyes flashed. 'Before they join their death-eater brothers in hell.' Celestin leaned forward. 'You sense trouble?'

Marius pushed the sunglasses up his nose, his face, hard to read anyway, and even harder when it was covered like that, was devoid of emotion. 'The scent of trouble has been thickening over these last few weeks, my friend. Something is coming.'

Celestin's fingers unconsciously brushed a shape on his bandanna, his eyes dark. '…I know…'

'You need to tread cautiously. It won't be just one or two death-eaters this time, but perhaps twenty, maybe, and there will also be ministry wizards present. It could be all over if either catch you.' Marius said gravely.

Celestin stood, pulling his coat on and picking up the long, thin bag, before flashing a grin at Marius, who had also stood. 'It is unlikely they'll catch me, especially if I've got anything to do with it. You worry too much sometimes, Marius.'

A fond smile touched the man's features and he momentarily touched the boy's face with a gloved hand. 'It is hard to forget how fragile mortals are. It is what I get for my raising you.' He lowered his hand.' So, Do you have a plan of attack?'

'Other than sneaking in to watch the finals beforehand? Sort of,' He admitted, ignoring the slight tut from the man about priorities. 'But it means paying an old "friend" a visit'

Marius shot him a look. 'You know the man has had dealings with death-eaters before. Are you sure you can trust him?'

Celestin laughed darkly. 'Trust? Who said anything about that?' A feral grin settled onto his youthful face. 'But he knows that, if he betrays me, I will be is personal emissary to hell, taking him the slow, scenic rout as I give him the tour of his own insides'

Marius sighed. 'At times you can be so barbaric, my friend,' though a small smile graced his features.

Celestin smirked and turned to leave, waving back to him as he began to walk away. 'That's what I get for being raised by a vampire.'

Marius smirked as he watched his protege walk away, sharp fangs glinting. 'So true, my friend. So true.'

0C0

Knockturn Alley wasn't the type of place you would expect some who served the light side to be. It was a dark, dingy, narrow alleyway leading off Diagon Alley that even sunlight seemed to refuse to enter and seemed to be made up of shops entirely devoted to the dark arts. It was the sort of place that you expected the ministry to have investigated by now and closed down, yet Celestin wasn't surprised. With such a bungler as Cornelius fudge as minister, it was hardly surprising that a fourteen-year-old had taken up the law into his own hands.

Celestin strode confidently through the twisting alley, ignoring the unscrupulous people that slunk in the shadows. No one dared to approach him. Such a person like him who walked so confidently and admitted such an aura could not be a person to mess with. Celestin knew this and used it to his advantage. None would suspect that he was on the light and actively reducing their numbers. But he wasn't interested in these people for now. Celestin was searching for a particular shop that held certain items Celestin could use for his upcoming target. He smirked. He almost felt sorry for the poor schmuck that ran the place…almost. He chuckled and pushed open the door, a bell clanging as he entered.

Borgin and Burkes was a dimly lit shop filled with what Celestin would call "interesting" items, which meant that everything in the place looked as if it should have hazard written over it in large fluorescent, flashing lights. A large glass case held a withered hand on a cushion, a bloodstained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. Evil looking masks hung from the walls. Human bones – which Celestin decided he didn't want to hazard a guess at where they were from – were arranged on the counter and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling that looked as if they were some sort of instruments for torture. A rather ornate looking necklace of opals with a card propped on it that reading; _Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed – Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date_ sat in a glass cabinet, sitting close to a hangman's rope. Yet there was definitely one thing that caught his interest. Two well-kept weapons that looked like muggle guns sat on a shelf. One was jet black, the other an ivory white. Inscribed on both was a name. Nox for the black, Dies for the white - Latin, if Celestin remembered correctly. Night and Day. Celestin swept a hand over them, his eyes closed. He could sense strong magic from them. He smirked. This was exactly what he was looking for.

Just then a stooping man appeared behind the counter. He had a face that immediately made you think of some sort of swindler, his dark hair smoothed back with enough oil to silence at least ten very squeaky doors. Seeing the figure standing by the shelf, his back to the counter, the man approached, rubbing his hands together.

'Ah, younger mister, welcome, welcome.' His voice was almost as oily as his hair. 'Something caught your fancy? We have had a lot of new stock in not long ago – all very reasonably priced, of course.'

Celestin chuckled at his manner and turned to face the man slowly, a cold smile on his face. 'Mr Borgin,' He said softly. 'How nice to see you again, old _friend_.'

It was enough to make the man lose his slimy composure. His face drained of all colour and he immediately started breaking out into a cold sweat. He stumbled backwards into the counter as his knees looked just about to give way. He gaped at the raven-haired boy in the most convincing impression of a landed fish that Celestin had ever seen. 'I-it's you!' he gasped, pointing at him.

Celestin parted his arms in a relaxed manner. 'I was the last time I checked. Brilliant deduction, Mr Borgin, though I have to say your manners haven't improved – it's rude to point.'

The man looked just about ready to faint. 'B-but I h-haven't said anything! You know I… mercy! I-I beg you…' he started to babble, slowly becoming more and more incoherent. Celestin watched with an blank expression, though inside he was close to bursting out laughing at the fear the man was showing to a fourteen year old of around average height – understandable fear, but still a silly picture. He let the man sweat a little, before giving him a small, disarming smile.

'Then count yourself lucky today, Mr Borgin, 'cause I haven't come for you.'

Not that it made the man relax much more. 'Please don't kill anyone in my shop, sir.' He wined. 'A body in the store, blood everywhere… it's very bad for business, even here. I'm sure you understand…'

Celestin laughed at the miserable look on the man's face. 'Be assured, I'm not playing grim reaper on any of your customers… at least, not today. Don't worry, I wont foul _your_ floor.' Borgin shivered a little and leaned more heavily on the counter, out of relief or fear at Celestin's ominous, silk-lined words, he didn't know. 'In fact,' Celestin continued, 'I'm actually here as a…business associate, so to speak. I'm buying, Mr Borgin.'

The man's expression changed immediately. His eyes took on a calculating, gleeful look and his oily manner was back in place. Celestin almost rolled his eyes, not seeing how that oily manner was going to persuade him when he could scare the pants off him with a look. 'Buying? Of course, I knew you had a tasteful eye, sir. You've seen something you'd like?'

Celestin decided not to comment on the "tasteful" remark and turned his attention to the two guns. 'Tell me about these two fascinating objects here, Mr Borgin'

Hands rubbing together, the storeowner scurried over to Celestin's side. 'Ahhh, the infamous Dies and Nox. Powerful weapons. I believe they were created during 1945 to prevent muggles learning of wizards. Spelled to be highly accurate and will shoot even through the strongest of shields. It's like an Avada Kedavra.'

Celestin traced over the metal with a finger, without actually touching it. 'Any curses on them?'

'Not that I know of. But it uses Wizards energy to power it.'

'Ah!' Celestin picked up the Ivory gun in experienced hands, much to Borgin's dismay, but Celestin ignored his protests, running his fingers over the golden inscription. He had been trained to sense magical energies – an ability few wizards had heard of, and even fewer could actually use. All things magical gave off certain vibrations, which Celestin had found highly useful – especially during combat. It helped him to predict if a spell was to be fired, or if a curse was to be thrown. He could feel magical vibrations in the air coming from this weapon. Oh, not that it had its own life force. Celestin was very experienced in those matters, but it made it no less dangerous. As Borgin had said, it was a truly powerful weapon and positively suicidal to use in inexperienced or weak hands. Celestin was quite surprised some follower of Voldemort hadn't bought them yet, though he guessed it might be something to do with the fact they looked so much like muggle weapons for proud pure-bloods to use. Celestin smiled. Well, fool on them…

He chuckled, causing the man to jump a mile next to him. 'I like these,' Celestin told him. 'So, how much are you asking for them?'

Borgin looked surprised for a second. 'What? You want both of them?'

'Can't very well split up a pair, can we?'

The man's eyes narrowed. 'How much do you have?'

Celestin was tempted to roll his eyes. _Once a businessman, always a businessman._ He reached into his coat and pulled out a leather pouch. With a half-smile, Celestin pulled the drawstring and tipped the bag a little. Several golden Galleons fell into his palm – the bag was full of them. He could see them man's eyes shining with greed. 'Would this be enough, Mr Borgin?'

'Well, well, what do you know! That's exactly the amount they cost!' and he snatched the bag from Celestin's hands.

Celestin gave him a weary, half-hearted glare. 'Why am I not surprised?' He carefully slipped the guns into the inside of his coat, vowing to make some special holsters for them later. He looked at the man about to start counting the gold when he frowned. 'Look, I am not getting into trouble for you, you know. You better not let 'em start thinking I joined with you. I'm neutral.'

Celestin chuckled softly, 'of course you are, Mr Borgin. But don't worry, this won't get traced back to you, old friend…' He flicked his wrist and a wand slid out of the holster in his sleeve. He flicked it in the man's direction. 'Obliviate!'

Instantly, Borgin's eyes slid out of focus, his brows unknitted and his face became slack, a look of dreamy unconcern falling over his face. Celestin smiled, knowing that all memory of his appearance had been modified. The boy took the bag of gold once again and slipped it into his pocket. 'I'm sorry, Mr Borgin, but it's for your own good. What you don't know, you can't betray…'

With that, Celestin spun on his heal and walked out the shop, the door shutting with a dull clang behind him.

TBC

**Chosha's notes**

_So, what do you think? Is it good, bad, or just plain stupid? Please, out of the kindness of your heart, review and tell me what you think. Constructive critisism's welcome. If you would like any explanations, don't hesitate to ask and I'll reply as best i can._

Next time on Celestin:

A shadow prowls in wait as the world cup arrives. Will Celestin succeed in his mission? Yet why's the Dark mark fired? something's starting...something that could shake the world to its foundations...Next episode: The Death-eater Masicure.

Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx


	2. The Death Eater Massacre

**Chosha's Notes**

_Way, I'm back with another Celestin chapter. Thank you to those four who reviewed, but if you didn't and are reading, thanks for reading as well. I hope people enjoy this chapter too! So, without further ado, lets get the show on the road!_

_Disclaimer: I know it, you know it. I don't_ own HP. _That belongs to JK Rowling-sama._

**Last time on Celestin**

_Celestin discovers the Quidditch world cup is starting and that Death-eaters will attend, so gets ready for his next 'assignment'_

**Chapter Two**

**The Death-eater Massacre **

The day of the Quidditch world cup was fast approaching and spirits were at an all time high. Even those who couldn't get tickets to see it were still infected by the upbeat aura and couldn't wait to see the pictures in the Daily Prophet, or hear the action on the radio. The only people who didn't seem to be having much fun were the ministry members who were organising it, being run to the bone to make sure everything was ready for the big day.

In a misty moor, miles away from civilisation, the campsites were covered in a blanket of thousends of tents, some of them more odd than others. Most looked like any other tent you could buy in the muggle world. However, there were a few things that made you instantly know that no one non-magical was camped here. Some tents supported chimneys, or bell pulls. Then there were some tents that could be nothing _but_ magical, one looking like a miniature palace – complete with peacocks, while another had several turrets. One even had its own water feature.

Celestin couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he walked unnoticed amongst the sea of tents. Even though the wizards were all meant to have arrived incognito to avoid raising the suspicions of the Muggles who owned the fields, they had done something of a poor job about it. He found it all rather hilarious. He had already spotted an old wizard walking around wearing nothing but a long, flowery, ladies night-gown (much to the horror of a ministry wizard who was desperately trying to get him into normal muggle-men's clothes). Celestin was thankful it wasn't too windy, otherwise many would be scarred for life. He had seen a little boy playing with a wand that had caused a slug to turn into the size of salami, only to be accidentally squashed when this mother came out to scold him. Celestin was struggling to contain his laughter at the boy's squeals of 'You bust slug! You bust slug!' He had also spotted a large group attempting to put up a tent, but the eldest man with balding red hair seemed to be having a bit too much fun with a mallet. Meanwhile, two girls and three boys (most of whom also had red hair) were attempting to get him to actually use said hammer on the pegs.

He knew that the World cup would be starting in a few hours time in a large stadium that had been set up on the other side of the woods at the end of the fields. It was made of what seemed to be pure gold and was probably large enough to fit the Westminster Abby at least ten times over. The place was covered from head to foot in almost every known muggle repelling charm known to wizard kind. Even though Celestin had more important aims he would be fulfilling, he was definitely not going to miss out in watching the Quidditch world cup himself. The wizard sport fascinated Celestin, ever since he had first seen one with Marius when he was six. Indeed, the world cup was a once in a lifetime trip, and despite ulterior motives for being there, Celestin was going to make the best of it.

There was the small problem of not having a ticket, though, which was why Celestin wandered in the stadium's direction now. He could find a spot to watch the action without being spotted before. He had already bought from a salesman a pair of omnioculars, but these were only partly to watch the match with.

This was the second and, arguably, most important reason for sneaking into the ministry guarded stadium. Here there would be many people, and some of those numbers were most definitely Death-eaters. If Celestin could get into the stadium, he would be able to see those whom Marius had reported to be supporters of Voldemort. If he could find out the average number of Death-eaters in the crowd, Celestin would be able to estimate the best plan of attack. Then, it wouldn't matter what the number was…they would all meet the same fate.

As Celestin got closer to the woods, the tents began to thin out, before he disappeared into the trees. Carefully, be moved through the undergrowth, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of human life. The woods had been set up as an Apparation zone, so he had to make sure he would not be spotted. Thankfully, he neither saw nor felt anyone. However, he wasn't about to let his guard down. As the trees began to thin out once more, Celestin slowed his pace and crouched down to observe the few ministry wizards that stood guard. Celestin was hardly surprised. The famous world cup players were probably within, plus they didn't want anyone to sabotage the equipment. However, all of them looked tied – some were even dropping asleep. Celestin smiled. _Shame on them, but good luck for me._

Carefully, he tapped himself on the head with his wand. From where his wand touched his head, cold trickles seemed to run down his body, covering him, as if he had tipped cold water on his head. He held a hand up to his face and smiled at what he saw…or in this case, _didn't _see. The spell he had used hadn't turned him invisible exactly, but it had transformed him, clothes and all, into the exact colour and texture of the scenery behind him. It made him feel like a human chameleon. The Disillusionment charm, as it was known, was something of a speciality of Celestin's. After all, on his previous missions, he had used it to move unnoticed to his target. Of course, it also had its other uses.

Careful not to knock any of the undergrowth, Celestin emerged from the woods and slowly approached the stadium. Normally, he would nave been much more careful, but with the ministry 'guards' as tired as they were, they weren't nearly as observant as they would have been to see the background shift a little as Celestin approached. Carefully, Celestin slipped past the guard at the entrance, before moving as soft as a cat up the purple-carpeted stairway until he came to the highest point he could get – the top box.

The box sat exactly in the middle of the opposing goal posts, twenty purple and gilt chairs stood in two rows. However, Celestin didn't make for the seats. Instead, he pulled himself up the wall behind the seats and crouched there like a panther watching its prey. Taking one of the seats would be too risky. After all, although the seats cost an arm and a leg to reserve, there were still very rich magical families who would no doubt have taken all of them. It would be very bad for his cover if someone sat on him – not to mention traumatic for him, too. Celestin chuckled at the image and made himself comfortable on the stadium wall.

He didn't have long to wait. A deep, booming gong sounded from somewhere within the stadium. Celestin watched as dozens of Irish green and Bulgarian red lights flickered on, lighting the way through the woods to the entrance. His sensitive hears picked up cheers, shouts, laughter, snatches of singing coming from the campsite and a trickle of people began to appear from the path through the woods, that soon became more dense and swelled like a flooded river.

Celestin pulled out his omnioculars as people began to trail into the stadium itself. Omnioculars looked like brass binoculars at first glance, until you took in the dozens of knobs and dials that were scattered all over the surface. Celestin spun a dial near the base of the omnioculars and held them to his eyes, focusing on the people as they came into the stands. The dial allowed him to see the faces of each person clearly, even those on then lowest seats at the opposite end of the stadium.

Celestin almost jumped when a strange little creature staggered onto the top box below him. It was only a few feet all with long, bat-like ears and a large, tomato-shaped nose. It seemed to be wearing some sort of tea towel like a toga. Celestin watched the creature with a little interest. He knew what it was – a house elf. And one, he noted with a little amusement, that obviously disliked heights. It took one look over the edge, squeaked and shot to a chair, covering its face with its hands. It gulped then looked at the chair next to it.

'You stay where you is, and be good, Master Barty,' The creature said, before hiding its face again. Celestin raised an eyebrow. There was no one else sitting on the top box just yet. _Interesting…_ he thought with a frown. He shrugged and went back to surveying the crowd. _But it's not my concern._

The stadium was filling up quite fast now and even the top box began to fill with people after the house-elf arrived. Celestin even recognised one group in the box to be the red-haired family he had seen in the campsite. However, he grimly noted at least twenty of the people were death-eaters Marius had informed him about, but he was positive there were others that had wormed their way out of Azkaban. _A surprise attack then…_

Finally a man barged into the box wearing what looked like Quidditch robes of some sort, but the man's stomach stretched at it in a way that the horizontal stripes were certainly not flattering. His face reminded Celestin of a school boy's, if not for the slightly squashed nose. He beamed at the people in the top box excitedly. 'Everyone ready?' he asked ecstatically. 'Minister – ready to go?'

The minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge, seemed quite happy with the arrangement. 'Ready when you are, Ludo,' He said comfortably. Celestin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The upper classes were way too conceited. Especially this particular fool.

The man named Ludo whipped out his wand and, directing it at his throat, said 'Sonorus!' The spell magnified his voice so much it could be heard over the roaring sounds of the now packed stadium. It seemed to shake the building's very foundations. 'Ladies and Gentlemen…Welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!'

The spectators all screamed and clapped, while thousends of tiny flags waved - all singing the national anthems of either Ireland or Bulgaria. Celestin settled down to watch the match. _Might as well enjoy myself while I can_, he thought. _After all, the targets won't be leaving. It's only a matter of time…_

0C0

The woods were dark; the only sounds were the slowly dying muffled celebrations and singing of the Irish after their stunning victory over Bulgaria. The stadium and woods itself, however, were silent and unmoving as a graveyard. The shadows covered every inch of the woods, except for the occasional, tiny break in the canopy, where soft moonlight shone through. Not that Celestin cared about this. To him, the less light there was the better, as it made his hiding so much easier until game time. He was crouched in the thick leaves of at tree several feet from the campsite, watching like a green-eyed hawk. Everything he was wearing was jet black. His bandanna, T-shirt, trenchcoat, trousers – everything. He blended easily into the shadows. He looked kited out for war. The holsters on his belt held Dies and Nox, while the belt itself was lined with various capsules containing anything from poisons to antidotes. Strapped across his back was a long sword, the type that can be wielded either one or two handedly. The steel was about as wide as his hand and as long as the length of his leg. Along the blade itself were carvings depicting an eastern dragon, while Kanji runes of power were carved below it. The metal itself seemed to glow a soft, bluish hue. Celestin could feel the air around the sword vibrate and felt as tendrils of magic brushed him impatiently. Celestin chuckled and touched the hilt with a fingerless-gloved hand.

'Hush now, Masamune… It won't be long now.'

The sword, Masamune, was no ordinary sword. While Celestin had been in Japan with Marius, an ancient magic binder had created it for him. They had told him their request and he knew their cause and had crafted his finest work. He crated Masamune, a living sword, bonded to his very being. It would allow no one but Celestin to hold the blade. If anyone else tried, the sword would either make itself too heavy to be even picked up, or it would instantly destroy him. The sword, however, recognised his presence and seemed to hum at the touch.

Celestin went over the plan in his head once again, making sure he had looked at all the possibilities. That was one of the first rules for a good assassin. One cannot just go charging into a situation without looking at all the probabilities and options available. To do otherwise could mean certain death.

After the display everyone had seen at the match, It was a certainty that there was going to be much celebratory drinking. He knew that this would mean that the Death-eaters would be rather intoxicated, thus stupid. He already knew how these people acted. They were very proud people, so he was sure that they would have their 'reunion' by reminding everyone that there was a hell of a lot of them still at large. And when Death-eaters celebrated, they were never subtle about it, even back when they were at their peak in Voldemort's reign. That would give him a slight edge over the seemingly overwhelming odds. Of course, they probably didn't think the 'infamous assassin' would come here, watching, waiting…

As if on cue, a sudden scream burst from the Ireland campsite and Celestin's eyes flashed. His sensitive ears could hear people running, noises like gunfire and loud, drunken jeers and yells. He could see the occasional burst of light as something caught fire, see figures fleeing towards the woods for safety. His eyes landed on a crowd of wizards, tightly packed, hooded, wearing masks. More were joining, pointing and jeering at figures floating above them. Celestin leaned forward a little in the tree and squinted, trying to make out the figures, recognising them as the muggles who owned the campsite – Mr Roberts and family, he believed. What they were doing was sick, twisted and so very, very predictable.

Celestin smiled darkly, slipping on a silver-lined, black mask, marked with a winged sword, which covered his eyes and part of his cheeks. He leaped from the tree, landing with a cat-like grace on his feet and ran at lightning speed towards the group. The first thing he was going to have to do was save the muggles. They would only get in his way otherwise.

He weaved his way round the fleeing people, circling round the back of the hooded crowd. He flicked his wrist and his wand slid out of its holster into his palm. He took careful aim.

'Acco Muggles,' He said, calmly. The whole floating family screamed as they were pulled roughly from the death-eaters levitation and flew over towards Celestin. With another casual flick, he transfigured a tree into a pile of cushions, where the Roberts landed roughly. The woman and children sobbed hysterically. Celestin looked at Mr Roberts, who was clutching his family close.

'W-what are you?' He gasped out.

Celestin just looked at them calmly. 'It hardly matters. You should go, before things get much worse.' He turned his back to them and drew Nox from his belt.

It seemed to have taken the death-eaters a moment or two to realise their 'Play things' had been snatched from their spell. Some loudly complained, until one right at the back of the group caught sight of Celestin. Celestin grinned back and fired. The man barely managed to widen his eyes as the bullet smashed through the mask and into his skull, straight between the eyes and exploded out the back of his head. The muggle woman and children screamed somewhere behind him. Everyone fell silent.

'Who the hell are you?' One of the number sneered, his voice muffled behind the mask. Celestin had to admit, the guy had courage…or perhaps he was just too drunk to appreciate the danger he was in. None of them seemed to be upset that a member of their group was dead.

Celestin cocked his head to one side, a cold smile settling onto his face. 'Well now, what would be the point in telling you that?' He asked. 'After all, It would be pointless to give my name… to one who is about to die.'

The group began to laugh, first one, then the rest. Perhaps they were too intoxicated to realise that this young man standing before them seemed to emit such a powerful aura. Celestin could understand how ridiculous it must all seem to them.

'You must be dreaming, boy, if you think you can take us on,' a cold voce said from the crowd. Celestin smiled.

'Perhaps…twenty against one is hardly reasonable odds…for you, I mean.'

The confidence faded in some of them there and then, but others seemed to not be able to take such a blow to their pride so easily. Several drew their wands…but that was as far as some of them ever got.

Celestin grinned, his hand on the hilt of his sword and –he vanished! Some looked around in confusion, until they heard a scream. The spun round to find Celestin at the other side of the group as three men collapsed from the hiss of a live blade, blood splattering the mask of the man closest. He brought the sword down with a double-handed arc and sliced the man in half, his scream cut off sharply. Masamune seemed to quiver with excitement and lust for battle.

Celestin felt the vibration of magic coming towards him and turned in time to see a red beam come towards him. Eyes wide, he dodged, rolling to the side in front of the muggles and pulled out Nox, shooting three in the jugular. They went down at once, spraying fountains of blood from the arteries. Several spells were shot their way, but Celestin yelled 'Protego!' and the spells were deflected back at them. Celestin glanced at the muggles, who were sitting as if petrified. Celestin felt a slight flare of anger. Why the hell were they still here!

'What are you waiting for?' he snarled at them as he struggled to keep up the shield under the battering of spells. 'Get outta here already!'

It seemed to be the cold slap to the face they needed. They bolted. Celestin kept up the shield a little longer before dodging to the side and he cut through the wand and slashed the chest of a death-eater unfortunately enough to be standing closest, splattering Celestin with blood and gore. He didn't pause, he used Nox to blast apart the skull of another death-eater, but had to dodge when someone shot a Secare curse at him from somewhere behind. He barely managed it – the curse would have blasted apart his head, but his spin to meet his opponent caused it to barely miss his temple, just snagging on the cloth of his bandanna, which fluttered to the ground. Celestin shot the Death-eater in the chest, sending him ploughing backwards.

'Avada Kedavra!'

Celestin hissed and dove to the side as a blinding green light shot in his direction, but caused him to dive into another Secare. He pulled back in time, but not unscathed. He hissed as it ripped robes and dug in skin. It burned and stung, but it was better than the alternative. He jumped behind the remnants of a half-burned tent, gasping for breath and pulled out Dies. Taking a deep breath, he turned and shot five in seconds, sending fountains of red into the air as the collapsed, before ducking as more spells shot his way. Regaining his breath, Celestin put the guns away and leaped at another with Masamune, who tried to block him with a shield, but Masamune sliced straight through and his head detached from his shoulders, drenching him with the red stream from the gaping hole. Tentacles of jet black light lashed in his direction, and Celestin jumped away, skidding to a halt in front of the trees.

'There they are! The Death-eaters!'

Everyone froze.

Shouts were coming closer, soon followed by 'Stupefy!' Death-eaters went down, hit by red light. Celestin half-chuckled.

'Ministry wizards. It's about time they showed up, wouldn't you say?' He smirked coldly at the masked man he had been facing, locking pale grey eyes with icy green. 'You're in luck, Death-eater. You're life was spared…for the moment.' And he pulled out one of the small capsule from his pocket and slammed it into the floor. It broke, billowing out thick grey smoke.

The approaching wizards and surviving death-eaters were caught in the smog, making them cough and choke. It seemed like hours when the smoke finally cleared.

One of the ministry wizards looked round wildly. 'Where's that guy? The one with the sword?'

In the confusion, no one was sure what happened, but when the smoke had cleared, they could find no sign of the assassin anywhere among the bodies of death-eaters. However, something caught their eye. A piece of slivery looking paper fluttered to the floor.

'You, don't let those death-eaters escape!' Said the wizard who seemed to be the leader of the group, an oldish looking man wearing what looked like a banker's suit. 'And you, look for that man!'

As the men dashed to do as the wizard said, the man leaned down to pick up the glistening sheet. He flipped it over and hissed and what he saw.

'Barty? What's wrong?' asked one of the remaining wizards.

The one called Barty held up the card. On it was a strange symbol. It bore a golden sword, the hilt baring outstretched eagle wings. 'It's him.' He said, his voice oddly shaky. 'It was the assassin!'

Unbeknownst to them, Celestin, under the cover of his Disillusionment charm, peered round the edge of the trees and melted into the shadows, as if he had never been there at all.

TBC

**Chosha's Notes**

_So, Celestin's 'offed' more Death-eaters, and we've got ourselves some action. I'm contemplating raising the rating, but, I ask you're opinion on that. So, what do you think? I hope you enjoyed, but I would love to hear from you. Please review and tell me you're thoughts, questions or constructive criticisms._

_Next time on Celestin:_

_Celestin escaped the ministry, but he's not off the hook just yet. Can he escape, as well as seem completely harmless. Lord, don't draw attention to yourself Cel! Next episode: The-Boy-Who-Returned_

_Ja ne for now!_

_Chosha Kurenai xXx_


	3. He Who Has Returned

**Chosha Notes**

_Hello! Welcome back People! Thank you for everyone who reviewed. One of my reviewers has asked for a different paring than the usual, so this will most likely have elements of Celestin(Harry)-Female Blaise in it. However, if anyone wants to request a paring, the voting is now open!_

_Voting parings:_

_Harry-Fem!Blaise_

_Harry-Fleur_

_Harry-Tonks_

_Harry-Ginny_

_Harry-OC_

_Anyway, on to the story!_

_Disclaimer: I really can't be bothered to keep repeating myself, so this one applys to the rest of the fic. I DON'T OWN HP! I think that covers it, yeah?_

_Last time on Celestin_

_Celestin fought the death eaters, but had to make a getaway when the ministry turned up._

**Chapter Three**

**He-Who-Has-Returned**

Celestin ran through the woods, still under the Disillusionment charm, Masamune clutched in his hands, feeling slippery with blood and worse. The wound in his arm ached and throbbed like fire, but it had been caused by a cutting curse and no magic could seal that one up. Nevertheless, he knew he would have to find a place to stop soon. Running while wounded could be deadly, he knew, but it would be no good for the ministry to find him either, especially with a sword covered in blood. He knew the ministry probably wanted him dead or alive, even if it was Death-eaters he had killed. It was still murder and, by law, enough to land him with a one way ticket to Azkaban.

Celestin came to a halt somewhere deep within the woods and doubled over, gasping for breath, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of life. He was alone and could neither see nor hear anyone or anything. Seeing all was clear, Celestin allowed himself to slide down a tree trunk, feeling his limbs shaking as the adrenaline began to wear off, wearily tugging off the mask off his face. He drew out his wand and tapped himself on the head, reversing the charm in a way that felt like hot water had been pored over his head. Glancing down at himself, he could make out his form in the shadows, glistening slightly in places with blood – especially on his left arm, which was ripped to the skin. He grimaced.

Celestin laid down the sword on the grass and carefully slid off his coat, wincing at the stinging the movement caused. It felt sticky, slick feeling of blood on his clothes, but blood he could deal with. Dumping the coat down unceremoniously along with Masamune's sheath, he inspected the wound on his arm, clearing away the blood around it with his sleeve, and sighed at what he saw. It was only a flesh wound and not deep enough to be life threatening, though it still oozed a little blood. Normally he would have healed it magically and be done with it, but the Secare curse prevented any healing spells from working, and it slowed the natural healing process. It would need stitching for the bleeding to stop.

'Marius'll chew me out for this,' he sighed as he pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket and began to wrap the wound awkwardly with his right hand and teeth to stem the blood flow. The whole thing had been a close call. If it hadn't been for the fact that each and every Death-eater had been intoxicated, Celestin was certain that he would have come out a lot worse than he had. He might not have got out at all. He was not too proud to admit that - an Assassin knows his limits.

With the most important part out of the way, Celestin turned his attention to the sword, which was lying in the dewy grass. Carefully, he picked it up again and began to wipe it on the wet ground, trying to cleanse it of as much blood and gore that caked the blade, before wiping it down with a second cloth from his coat. He could feel the slight displeasure radiating from the blade.

'M'sorry, 'Mune, but that's the best I can do until we get home.' He told it wearily, before sliding it smoothly back into the sheath that lay on his coat. Celestin swung the coat over his shoulders and slid his arms back into it, before placed an invisibility charm on Masamune. He paused, then decided to put a notice-me-not charm on his clothes. Hopefully, if he ran into any of the people who had fled into the woods, they wouldn't be able to see the blood unless they were looking for it.

'Well, we best get moving. The further we are from the field, the less likely they will think I'm the assassin,' he told the sword. He guessed he could use the Portkey he had in the shape of a badge on his jacket, but he dismissed the idea. It was to be used in an emergency only. He knew all too well that Portkeys could be tracked. The last thing he needed now was to be hunted down by the whole Ministry of Magic.

He began to walk through the woods, but it wasn't long until he reached a part so thick with leaves no light could get through at all. Celestin cast a Lumos, making the tip of his wand glow brightly, lighting the way. He didn't really need the light, having been trained in absolute darkness at times, but he needed to clear his wand. If he were intercepted, they wouldn't think an assassin would need light and would think him innocent. He began to walk again. But it wasn't long until he heard a rustling in the undergrowth. Celestin whipped round, wand out in front of him defensively, when two figures stumbled, blinking, into the light. However, seeing as they weren't Ministry wizards or surviving Death-eaters.

The first was a boy of about his own age with flaming red hair and freckles. He was tall – about a head taller than he was and gangling, seeming to be made up of all knees and elbows. His hands and feet were rather big compared with the thin form, Celestin noted. He was wearing striped pyjamas that seemed a little too small for him and a brown jacket.

The other was a girl with thick, bushy, frizzy brown hair and, wearing a pink nightdress and a long coat. If it weren't for the slightly oversized front teeth, Celestin would have thought her rather attractive. However, he couldn't help but idly wonder what her hair would be like normally if it were that bad then.

Yet, something nagged at his mind. Where had he seen these to before? Suddenly, he realised why these two looked so familiar. These were two of the kids who had sat in the top box – the one with the large family of redheads, if he remembered rightly. Both were staring at him, looking crossed between wry and a little frightened. He realised he was pointing is wand in a rather aggressive fashion in their direction. No wonder they looked scared!

Celestin forced himself to relaxed and lowered his wand.

'Ah…sorry.'

He saw the others relax too, though the boy looked at him with a little suspicion, and the girl smiled with a sigh. 'That's alright,' the girl said. 'You just scared us a little. We thought you could have been…' she looked as if she was struggling for a polite way of putting it.

'A Death-eater?' Celestin supplied.

The girl blushed.

Celestin chuckled weakly. 'It's okay, no harm done.'

The red headed boy turned to him. 'Er… Have you seen a girl and two boys – twins – with red hair and freckles at all?' He asked, worry evident in his voice. 'We lost them when we got in the woods.'

'Relatives of yours are they?' Celestin asked. The boy flushed as red as his hair, his face looking a little stormy. He honestly didn't know what he said to get such a reaction, but he shook his head. 'Sorry, I haven't seen anyone, but they should be fine. I think ministry wizards are sorting the trouble now'

'I hope so…maybe they'll catch Malfoy's dad to…' the boy muttered under his breath, before saying. 'Do you think its safe here?' he asked no one in particular.

'You can hear anyone coming from a distance here,' Celestin said, quite experienced at this type of think. 'I think it's okay.'

The boy looked at him for a moment, but sat down next to the girl. Celestin hesitated, then sat also. It would have seemed strange if he told them that and left, and he _was _trying to keep a low profile. He leaned his head back against a tree trunk. He felt dog tied. Never had he had to face so many death-eaters at a time. He really needed the rest. Plus the two strangers looked a little lost – the redhead seemed to have lost his wand - and he really wasn't sure if the ministry wizards would have got at the still rather large crowd left after Celestin's initial attack before they escaped. Best not to leave them just yet.

The redhead pulled out a tiny figure of the Bulgarian seeker, Krum, and placed it on the grass, and began to watch it as it waddled on duck-feet over the ground. Celestin watched it with a little amusement.

The girl, however, watched Celestin, until it began to make the hairs on his neck rise. He turned to look at her. 'Hm?'

The girl blushed again, apparently embarrassed at being caught with him watching him. 'I was just wondering…You're about our age, aren't you? But you don't look or sound like someone from one of the foreign schools and I've never seen you at Hogwarts either…'

Celestin shrugged. 'I guess you could say I'm home schooled. But you're very observant to figure out I'm not from a foreign school.'

The boy looked up at them. 'Yeah, well, she seems to know everything. I swear she ate those books.' He grumbled.

Celestin laughed at the annoyed look she shot the boy, but the girl seemed to be ignoring the comment otherwise. It looked like neither was in the mood to laugh at the moment and they soon fell silent again. Obviously, however, they were not too comfortable with the quiet, and soon began talking about the commotion back at the campsite.

'It was rather mad of them to try something like that when the whole Ministry of Magic is out here tonight.' The girl was saying. 'I mean, how do they expect to get away with it?'

'Guess that's what you get for drinking.' Celestin heard the other muttering darkly. 'They're drunk, most like-'

'Shush!' Celestin cut him off with a raised hand as he heard a faint sound, like someone staggering towards the clearing. He tensed, his wand at the ready.

'What's wrong?' asked the girl, but she cut herself off too. They could all hear it now, the rustling of undergrowth. Suddenly, they came to a halt. Silence…

Celestin rose to his feet, squinting into the darkness, body ready for a fight. The red haired boy rolled to his knees. 'Hello?' he said, but still, silence.

Suddenly, a deep voice shouted. 'MORSMORDRE!'

Something green and glittering erupted from the darkness, rising into the sky.

'What the-?' gasped the boy, springing to his feet, staring up at the sky. Celestin looked at it for a second, trying to work out what it was, before drawing a hissed breath. A colossal skull composed of emerald stars stared down at them, a moving, writhing serpent slithering out of the mouth like a tongue. 'The Mark!' He hissed. And the woods erupted into terrified screams. The boy looked confused, but the girl had blenched and began to pull at his arm frantically.

'What's going on?' asked the boy.

'It's the Dark Mark, Ron!' the girl moaned. The boy - Ron - still looked bemused. Celestin had to wonder if he was muggle-born or something.

'It's Voldemort's symbol,' Celestin stated, grabbing them both by the arm. He felt them both flinch at then name. Hard. But he ignored it as he pulled them along. They got the idea and began to run, but before they got ten steps, Celestin felt a flurry of magical vibrations around them, followed by a series of popping sounds. Celestin swore. They were surrounded by a group of wizards, all with their wands trained on them. 'Shit – DUCK!' He grabbed the other two and pushed them to the ground.

'STUPEFY!' roared twenty voices and red beams shot everywhere. Celestin felt his hair rippling and was sure he could smell singeing as the stunners shot exactly where they had been several seconds before. He felt a movement next to him and a whimper.

'Stop!' came a yell. 'STOP! That's my son!' The spells immediately cut off. Celestin raised his head a little to see a balding red haired man running across to them, looking terrified. He looked almost a different man from when he had seen him playing with the mallet, or watching the match.

'Ron – Hermione – are you alright?' his voice sounded a little shaky.

'Yes,' Hermione panted, shaking all over. 'This guy stopped us getting hit.'

The man looked at Celestin hard. He could have sworn he saw gratitude glistening in his eyes. The raven-haired boy looked away, pretending to be dusting himself off to hide his discomfort. 'Yeah, don't mention it.'

'Out of the way, Arthur,' said a cold, curt voice. Celestin looked up to see an elderly man in a crisp suit, with perfectly parted grey hair and toothbrush moustache. He remembered seeing the guy before. 'Barty' if he recalled correctly. Thankfully, The man had not caught a glimpse of his face in return, so Celestin remained still. However, the man's face was taunt with rage. 'Which one of you did it?' he snapped, looking quite mad. 'Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?'

'What!' Ron blurted indignantly. 'We didn't do anything!' he looked at the man whom Celestin assumed was his father. 'What did you want to attack us for?'

Celestin felt annoyed as well. He killed death-eaters for a living. Why would he want to conjure their sign? Of course, not that this man knew that, but still, it irked him.

'Do not lie, sir!' Barty snarled, his eyes popping and his wand pointed directly at the boy. 'You were discovered at the scene of the crime!'

'Barty,' Whispered a slightly frazzled looking witch in a long woollen dressing gown, 'They're kids, Barty, they'd never be able to do it.'

'She's right, we wouldn't be able to conjure that thing,' Celestin said, nodding towards the mark with a frown, not bothering trying to keep the indignation of the accusation from his voice. 'We don't know how. Not that we'd _want_ to make _his_ sign.'

The ministry wizard rounded on him. 'Then perhaps you will let us inspect your wand!' he snapped.

'But he was with us the whole time!' Hermione protested. Celestin felt another stab of annoyance.

'Oh, for heavens…' He took a deep breath to calm himself. 'Fine. Knock yourself out.' He threw his wand to the man, careful to keep his hands close to his guns in case the wizard tried anything while he was unarmed. However, Barty passed his wand to another wizard, a man with a ruddy-face and a scrubby, brown beard.

The man pointed his own wand at the tip of Celestin's and roared 'Prior Incantato!' Immediately the wand burst forth a shadow of the Lumos charm. Celestin could have sighed with relief; secretly glad he had cleared his wand out first.

'Happy now?' He asked, snatching the wand off the embarrassed looking wizard.

The red haired wizard turned to his son and Hermione quickly. 'Where did the dark mark come from, you two?' Celestin was glad there was at least one ministry wizard who wasn't a complete imbecile.

The girl pointed shakily towards the place they had seen the spell originate from. 'Over there. There was someone behind the trees…they shouted words – an incantation-'

_Smart girl,_ Celestin thought, _though I don't think this is the right time to show that, _he thought dryly, making a point of ignoring the toothbrush moustache man as he started to rant at her, seeing as the other ministry members didn't believe him either. Some wizards were already scouting the area Hermione had pointed to. He could hear them talking amongst them selves when suddenly-

'Yes! We got him! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's – but – blimey…'

Celestin's ears pricked at this and he looked to see a wizard coming forward through the undergrowth with a… Celestin took one look and burst out laughing at how ridiculous the picture looked. 'You can't seriously think a house-elf did it!' he managed through his laughter. Obviously the man who questioned Celestin didn't find it funny at all. He looked desperate to pin it on someone else as he strode back to where the Elf had been found, despite the other wizard's protests that there was no one else there.

'First that assassin disappears on us, now this.' At the mentioning of the assassin, Celestin saw Ron and Hermione's eyes widen in something cross between horror (Hermione) and dark shock (Ron). Celestin didn't make any motion that would single him out, though he couldn't help but stiffen at the mention of himself. 'Bit embarrassing,' the wizard who found the elf noted, looking at it grimly. 'Barty Crouch's house-elf…I mean to say…'

Celestin blinked as he looked at the elf. Wait, it looked familiar – of course, the top box! It was that strange elf from the World cup. So it belonged to this Barty character. Well, no wonder the poor thing talked to itself – it had a maniac for a master.

Arthur obviously found it as stupid as Celestin did. 'Come off it, Amos. You don't seriously think it was the elf? The dark mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand.'

'Yeah, she _had_ a wand.'

'What!'

'Here, look,' Amos held up a wand and showed it to Arthur and began talking about a broken code for wands in the possession of magical creatures. Finally Crouch returned. The man moved in a strange, jerky fashion, as if he was in shock.

'If it's alright with you, Mr Crouch,' Amos was saying, 'I think we should hear what she's got to say for herself.' Raising his own wand, he pointed it at the house elf and muttered 'Enervate!'

The elf woke slowly and groggily, rising to a sitting position. But when she saw herself surrounded by wizards, and her eyes fixed on the Dark Mark, She gasped, looked round wildly and burst into sobs. _That's strange…_Celestin thought. Not that he thought it was her, but it looked like she knew something. Why else would she react so violently.

'Elf!' said Amos sternly. 'Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the department for the regulation and control of magical creatures!'

_Oh yeah, smooth, Amos. _Celestin thought sarcastically. _Yes, just give the thing a haemorrhage, why don't you._ He watched as Amos began to question the elf._ This is stupid!_ But he said nothing. He really needed to keep the attention away from himself, otherwise they might just see he was covered in blood and put two and two together and realise this long-haired boy who they questioned was actually also the 'infamous assassin', as they labelled him.

'I-I-I is not doing it, Sir!' the elf was squeaking. 'I is not knowing how, sir!'

That proved Celestin's theory. No way could that high-pitched voice be the man that cast the mark. Hell, the elf was female!

'You've got to be kidding,' Celestin said calmly, though he felt like smacking the idiot. 'The voice that said the spell was a man's. The elf sounds nothing like that. Plus, if you haven't noticed – she's a female elf. She couldn't make her voice that low even if she tried.'

'She was found with a wand in her hand!' barked the wizard to Celestin, brandishing the wand in the elf's direction. The elf coward and whimpered.

'Hey!' Ron said, pointing at the wand. 'That's mine!'

Everyone stared at the boy. Celestin smacked himself in the forehead. _Smooth move, Einstein_. Celestin thought scathingly. _Now they're gonna start on you._

'Excuse me?' Said Amos incredulously.

'That's my wand! I dropped it!'

'You dropped it?' repeated Amos in disbelief. 'Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?'

'What a moron…' Muttered Celestin under his breath, unable to prevent the thought slip through his mouth, crossing his arms with a quiet snort.

'Amos, do you really think my son would conjure the dark mark?' snapped Arthur, looking as peeved as Celestin felt. Amos winced and started to apologise.

'I didn't drop it there, anyway,' Ron growled in annoyance. His ears looked a little pink. 'I lost it after I fell over right after we got in the woods.'

Amos spun round to question the elf again, even though Hermione started to agree with Celestin that she couldn't possibly have done it, backed by Ron. Finally, Amos took the wand and muttered the same spell he had performed on Celestin's wand. To the horror of the onlookers, a ghostly grey form of the mark appeared, made of smoke.

'Deletrius!' Amos shouted and the grey mark disappeared in a wisp of smoke. A savage look of triumph on his face, Amos turned to the house-elf. The elf screamed denials, shaking, her eyes wide. Finally, Crouch began to reprimand the man rather loudly, but Celestin ignored them, too busy trying to think of a way to leave without raising too many suspicions. He also knew that the temporary bandage was not going to stop the bleeding of the Secare curse. He really needed to get it looked at. Plus, he was at large, even if the ministry wizards here were too stupid to realise their assassin was standing among them right that second.

He came back to himself when the arguing had stopped, an uncomfortable silence filling the area. Celestin blinked as he realised Crouch had sacked his house elf, despite the fact that they all knew that the Elf had merely found the wand. Finally, Arthur spoke up in a subdued voice. 'Well, I think I'll take these two back to the tent, if no-ones got any objections. Amos, the wand has told us all it can – can Ron have it back now?'

Amos handed Ron his wand and he snatched it back, looking disgruntled, though not as much as Hermione, who was fuming silently. Finally, Arthur steered the two back towards the exit of the forest. Now was the time to leave. Celestin also turned to go, seeing as the meeting was finally over. However, what they said next caused him to pause.

'Well, this is a fine mess, isn't it.' Amos grumbled. 'The press isn't about to just let this be. Merlin, first the assassin escapes, then the dark mark appears and the death-eaters that survived all disapparate before we could unmask any of them. As if we don't have enough problems already, what with the Tri-Wizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts and all…'

'What?' Celestin froze a little and turned round to look at the ministry wizards, none of whom had seen him stop, all had their backs to him. Celestin let himself melt into the shadows to listen.

'First one in a while' another agreed, 'Given us a run for our money setting it all up with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, then all those safety precautions, too.'

'People have died in the tournament before. I don't know what the Minister was thinking…'

Celestin closed his eyes. Exactly - People _have_ died in that tournament before. It was a good opportunity for some of those loyal to Voldemort to do something and make it seem like an accident. It was an opportunity he knew that the Dark forces would be dying to take...

'Hm,' when he opened his eyes again, they were hard as ice and steel. They seemed to flash in the semi-darkness, promising hell-fire to anyone who got in his way. Well, if this was what was going on, it would be in everyone's best interests if he was to go there himself to ruin those plans, wouldn't it? After all, it was his destiny.

TBC

**Chosha's notes**

_Okay, I want to say a couple of things. One is that, even though Celestin has now met Hermione and Ron, it is unlikely that they are going to become the close friends they are in the canon HP. Think about it - Celestin-Harry is very different from canon Harry. Plus we all know what Ron is like...You'll see what I mean when we get to it. I have plans for this story (and a sequel, yes, I have Idea's for a sequel!) and so Harry's life is different. I'm afraid that people who like friend Ron/Hermione might get a little annoyed, but no one can be friends each time Harry is in an AU from birth, so...we'll get to that when it comes. Any other comments or constructive critisisms, please review and tell me and I will try to answer._

_Next time on Celestin_

_Celestin and Marius have to plan out what they are going to do. But they know something is going to happen with the Tri-wizard...next episode: Desitions_

_Until we meet again._

_Chosha Kurenai xXx_


	4. Decisions

Chosha's Notes _Hello everyone and welcome back to Celestin. You know, I was looking at the stats for this story and it has the most C2's out of all my stories, and is already on over 10 favourites and alerts! I'm so happy! Cel is too. So I wanna give a big round of applause and a hell of a lot of thank you's for the reviews and for liking this so much. I hope I don't let you down!_

_Oh, and I've shortened the list of ideas for parings, based on the votes I've been getting. So, call this a sort of finals in the votes, yeah. I've been told by most that HP-Ginny and (even though I wasn't gonna have it anyway) HP-Hermione are a definite no. I sort of agree, there are waaaaay too many of those. Besides, you can't expect this AU Harry to become friends with the exact same people as in the canon, can you? So, the Votes have been shortened to…_

_HP-Fem!Blaise_

_HP-Daphne Greengrass _

_(HP-DG was one that many have asked for, despite not being on the list last time)_

_HP-OC_

_HP-Snape (yes, I was asked for a slash, so I thought I'd add it on.)_

_These are sort of…guidelines for me, just so I know who he meets (cause if he meets Blaise Zabini, I need to know if it's a male or female one, ne?) Just so you all know, this isn't going to be a romance fiction in any way, if parings do occur, they will all be slight ones, as this story is mainly going to be focused on the action, mystery etc element. Any Romance is all on the side, so if you don't want me going off on tangents, I know you'll be relieved. Too many good fictions mess up because they go onto a tangent from the original plot._

_Well, that's all the blabbering from me for now, so I'll zip it so you can get on with it, ne?_

_Last time on Celestin_

_Celestin escaped the battlefield, but was forced to undergo an investigation of a different sort after the Dark Mark was fired into the sky. But when Celestin was about to leave, he overheard something that interests him greatly…something that he's sure the other side will not pass up on…_

Chapter Four 

**Decisions**

The house stood surrounded by thick forests, situated on the top of a hill in what could only be described as 'the middle of nowhere'. However, it looked more like a once, admittedly small, but grand-looking manor, rather than a house. It had once belonged to a rich family. However, they had long since died and the place had fallen to ruin, forgotten by the outside world. Some of the windows were boarded up, while ivy climbed unchecked over its face, clinging to it with a death-grip. It was said that it had once belonged to the 'eccentric' but rich family known as the Alrics. However, the last member of that family had vanished mysteriously around one hundred or so years before, though no one had ever discovered what had truly happened to the man. It would seem that the only civilisation anywhere near to the place was a tiny, peaceful town that slept in with a blanket of shadow and stars overhead, as night had long since fallen. However, it would be something of a mistake to think this was the truth.

Celestin stood at the edge of the forest and looked up at the run-down looking manor, his emerald eyes scanning the building. There were some things that were rather special about this house. One was that if a stranger had been walking through these woods, they would not be able to see the house at all, due to several charms that had been placed upon it. The place was unplottable and also had a charm known as the Fidelius Charm upon it, so basically even the strongest of wizards could not find the place unless the secret keeper allowed it. In other words, the only wizard in all of England who knew where this place was was probably only Celestin himself. This made the Alric manor a perfect hideout from both Magical and muggle worlds.

Celestin smiled, seeing the welcoming lights that flickered from within and headed towards the place with calm strides and placed his hand against the door. The wards, for a moment, flared lightning blue, as if trying to determine whom it was trying to open the door. However, seconds later it faded again and the door clicked open, allowing him entry. Celestin smiled a little as he pushed open the door and headed inside.

Within was definitely a far cry from the manors outward appearance. Though it was not the most extravagant of places, it wasn't in complete disrepair, either. The stairs were made of dark, oak wood leading to the upper levels of the house, while the wide entrance hall bore a long rug of deep crimson. The walls were whitewashed and dark beams held up the roof. On special stands stood candlesticks made of sliver, which shone a little in the warm light of the candle. A plain door with a brass door knob lead off from the hall.

Celestin had barely taken two steps into the room when the door opened and a woman came bustling out. She was an old woman with a kind, but strict face and soft but bright brown eyes that seemed full of life. Her hair was a curly grey-white, that was tied back into a small braid with a blue ribbon and she wore a long-sleeved blue dress, which came down to her brown-booted feet. When she caught sight of Celestin, she jumped and dashed to his side; her face turned to one of concern.

'Merlin, Master Celestin! What happened to you? You're covered in blood,' she looked over Celestin critically. 'How much of it is yours?'

'Thankfully, hardly any of it. It's mostly death-eaters.' He held up his hands as he saw the woman's face harden at the words "hardly any of it". 'It's just a scratch, Lucy, and nothing that can't wait until after I've seen Marius and I've got myself cleaned up.' Lucy relaxed a little, though begrudgingly. 'Where is Marius, anyway?'

'He's in his office, Master Celestin.' Said the woman, though she kept looking in Celestin's direction worriedly. 'But don't you want to clean up first? I could run you the bath…'

Celestin smiled at the woman's concern. 'It's fine, Lucy. But I've got to see Marius; otherwise he might worry that a death-eater got in a lucky shot. But I'll have a shower. Why don't you go rest? You look a little tired.'

'I was worried, Celestin, sir.' Lucy sounded indignant. 'You can't expect me to just be able to fall asleep when you could have got hurt or worse. You might have needed my help.'

Celestin sighed. ' One of these days you'll make yourself ill worrying about me. As you can see, I'm fine. You go rest. And please, you know calling me sir and Master makes me feel uncomfortable.'

Lucy inclined her head. 'Yes, sir-I mean, Celestin.'

Celestin smiled at the retreating old maid. The woman had been in the service of Marius for as long as he could remember. She was a Squib, a non-magic woman from a magical family, but had been taken in by Marius when she was a young woman. She had been happy to serve Marius, even though he was a Vampire, in return and had helped to look after Celestin when he wasn't being trained in the arts. She seemed to think it an honour to serve the last member of the Alric family. Celestin had to admit it was one of the kindest things the Vampire had done, in Celestin's opinion. Being a Squib, Lucy would never be able to truly fit into neither the Muggle nor magical worlds. Working for Marius, it was something in which she could make herself feel a part of the world she loved.

Celestin headed up the stairs to the office where he could see a light flickering, probably from a fire in the harth, from under the door. This wasn't abnormal at this time in the night, what with Marius being a Vampire and all. Still, Celestin knew that that light would be on much longer tonight. He almost winced at the prospect of having to face Marius in the state he was in. With a deep breath, he entered into the room, blinking a little as his eyes got used to the dimmer lighting.

The room looked like an ancient study during the Victorian period. An antique writing desk stood by the wall, which had a neat pile of parchment sitting upon it. A small jar of ink sat close by, a raven-black feather quill stood within it. At the other end of the room stood an extravagant bookcase filled with various ancient volumes that were most likely one of a kind by now, titles ranging from history to old magic spells to potions. There were even a few muggle volumes there about martial arts and there were atlas' from all over the world. A fire crackled merrily in the grate and, above the mantle-piece was the crest of the Alric family. Standing round a shield, where two wands crossed, was a rampant Lion and a proud-looking stag. Beneath it was the family motto: _Strength through knowledge_. Celestin had always thought this was a fitting motto for Marius Alric.

On a beaten-up looking red couch sat a rather aristocratic looking man with ivory white, unblemished skin. He wore old looking tailored black trousers and an open white shirt revealing a toned stomach and chest. Bluish-black hair that could make a raven blush in envy was straight and his fringe covered one of his cat-like amber eyes, which were focused on a muggle newspaper in delicate-looking hands. As Celestin stepped into the room, the man looked up at him, his nostrils twitching as he sniffed the air.

'I smell blood'

Celestin stared at him incredulously. Right then, he was covered from head to foot in half-dried Death-eater blood. 'Really. I never noticed, Marius,' he said dryly.

The vampire Marius stood up and moving with a deadly grace common only to vampires almost seemed to glide across to him. He took Celestin's face, cupping his chin with a cool hand and tilted it up to look into his own. 'I smell _your_ blood, even under that of Death-eater – Fresh blood. There is no mistaking that scent.'

Celestin pulled his face away feeling a little embarrassed. 'Er…one got in a lucky shot, but it was better than being hit by the Avada. It's not too bad.' Marius raised an elegant eyebrow, obviously in disbelief. Celestin gave him a mock glare. 'Don't start, Marius, you're like a mother hen. Look, The only reason I came here first was because I knew you'd fret, but I really need a shower. I hate the feel of blood on my clothes. You can prod me all you want then.'

Marius sighed, as if irritated with him, but allowed Celestin to pass. Celestin unstrapped Masamune and his guns, laying them on the desk beside the parchment and ink and headed off to the bathroom, pealing off the coat that felt as if it had become attached to his skin from the blood as he went in.

The bathroom was almost as elegant as the rest of the house's interior. An Oval shaped bath stood against the wall, standing on golden clawed feet, with golden taps situated at the end, shaped like lion's heads. The wash basin was wide, and shaped like a shell. In a way, It kind of reminded Celestin of a Pensieve at times. Next to it on a golden rack was a deep crimson towel. At the far end of the room stood a slightly newer looking acquisition – a shower, with a golden handle for the water switch and the shower head was in the shape of a roaring lion's head, where the water would rain down from. Carefully, Celestin made his way over to the shower, his feet sinking into the lush, thick crimson rug in the middle, slowly pealing his dirty clothes from his skin. Unfortunately for Celestin, though he was great with offensive and defensive spells, he was severally lacking when it came to normal household spells. He felt a little sorry for Lucy and Marius' House-elf, Bede, when they had to get round to getting the stains from the clothes. However, he knew that Bede would enjoy himself (he never could understand house-elves…)

'Bede, could you come here?' Celestin said wearily.

There was a loud crack and a little creature that looked like the one from the world cup appeared. He had large, bat-like ears and big, brown eyes. His nose was a little longer than Winky's, but it was no less rounded. It looked a little like a small cucumber. He wore a well-kept red toga-like tea towel with Marius' crest upon it. Marius had tried to get Bede to have normal clothes, but Bede was horrified about it. It was half amusing to break Bede of the clothes equal sacking habit so he could help Lucy. Bede was just happy to get more jobs to do. Despite the time of night, the house-elf looked wide-awake and ecstatic that he was called.

'Yes, master Celestin, sir,' Bede squeaked.

Celestin rolled his eyes. 'I told you, just call me Celestin, or Cel, or…I don't know, "Long haired idiot," just stop with the master bit.'

Bede looked scandalised, 'But, Celestin, sir! Bede could never do that, sir! Bede thinks too highly of master Celestin, sir!'

Celestin pinched the bridge of his nose. He was really thinking this was just a lost cause. 'Anyway, do you think you could help clean up the blood on these things…I'm afraid I always seem to mess up on Household spells.'

Bede beamed as if this was his one and true ambition in life. 'You leave it to me, Master Celestin, sir. It is Bede's job, sir. You let me take care of it.'

Celestin had to smile at his excitement. 'Thanks, Bede. That's all.'

Bede grinned and, gathering the dirty clothes in his long hands vanished with a loud whip-crack.

Dirty clothes now out of the way, Celestin entered the shower and tugged the deep-red curtain around him. He took hold of the golden handle and turned it downwards. From the lion's mouth shot a stream of warm water.

Celestin raised his face into the shower stream, feeling the soft drumming of water against his hair and skin. The water, he knew, would be turning pink as rivulets running down his body cleansed it of dried blood and gore, swirling round his feet. He could feel his tense muscles relax a little. He couldn't help but smile a little, remembering the first time he had done this after a mission, trying to suppress the flashes of the fight. It seemed like such a long time ago…

Turning of the shower, he dried himself with a towel and held it against his arm which, to his annoyance, was still bleeding. He snorted and pulled on a bathrobe, but kept his injured arm uncovered so it would not dirty the bathrobe. _Better let Marius see to me_, he thought. _Or he'll go mother hen_. This made him laugh a little. A vampire of at least 100 years of age and well known amongst the vampiric council acting like a mother hen was definitely a funny picture.

Marius was waiting for him outside the Bathroom. He took one look at his arm and ordered him to his office to sit on the red coach. 'What caused it?' he asked tensely.

'Secare.'

Marius nodded and pulled out a needle and thread, before saying 'I'm going to cast a localised numbing charm, but it won't completely take away all sensations. You will still feel some.'

Celestin hummed in acceptance and Marius pressed his hands either side of the wound and mumbled something. Celestin shivered at the strange feeling that swept over his arm, numbing it. Marius, after a moment's pause to thread the needle, began to stitch the lesion. Celestin felt the first poke of the needle, and while it didn't hurt so much, it still felt strange. He looked away from the Vampire. He knew that Marius was a good and experienced physician and wasn't worried that he wouldn't be able to still the blood flow from such a wound.

They were silent for a moment. Finally, Marius paused in his work to squeeze Celestin's shoulder a little with his free hand, massaging it with his long, skilful fingers. Celestin winced a little as he rubbed out a knot in his muscles. 'Something happened.' Marius stated.

Celestin nodded slowly, his free hand slipping under his damp fringe to rub his forehead behind it. 'Or something will soon be happening…something a have a very bad feeling about.'

He felt Marius tense and pause for a second in his stitching, before continuing. 'You mean something to do with Voldemort?' he whispered.

'I believe so…' Celestin paused for a minute, arranging his thought into order, before taking a deep breath and describing what had happened at the Quidditch world cup. He explained about the targets and the fight. He heard Marius hiss as he told him of the sighting of the dark mark and the confrontation in the forest where Celestin had overheard about the Tri-wizard tournament. Otherwise, Marius remained silent, carefully stitching the wound closed. When Celestin had finished, Marius was silent for a moment.

'And about this feeling you had,' Marius said finally. 'What did it tell you?'

Celestin paused for a second, then shook his head. 'I don't know how to explain it, exactly. All I know is that the other side won't let a chance like this pass them idly by. We both know that Voldemort is far from gone. We both know that Voldemort is trying to gain more power and we definitely know that Voldemort is slowly getting stronger, even if we are cutting down his forces. The disappearance of that woman from the ministry, Bertha Jorkins, is proof of that. The tri-wizard would give them the chance to dispose of those powerful and potentially dangerous to them and make it seem like just an accident… or even draw a student away from the castle. My guess is that Voldemort is up to something and it has close links with the tournament.'

Marius looked at him sharply, 'You haven't dropped your shields, have you?'

Celestin knew he was referring to his Occlumency. From a young age, Marius had taught him how to protect his mind. Though Celestin had struggled with it at first, Celestin had finally got the hang of it. Now his shields were very strong.

Celestin shook his head. 'My shields are fine. But we always did suspect that were Voldemort and I are concerned that there will always be a slight crack…a link that can't be shielded from. But that's where it comes from. I can feel a…dark excitement, but it's detached. I definitely don't feel it – it's not my emotion, so…'

Marius closed his eyes. 'I see,' he said softly. 'Then it might be in our best interest if we were to investigate this.'

'So, how do you think we are gonna go about this then, Marius. I could go undercover as a student of some kind and find out any information I can among the teachers and students, but I would be limited in any action that I could take. Or we could watch and wait to see what happens…but by then it might be too late to do anything.'

Marius sighed, his amber eyes lifting from his work to look at his protege. 'Well, we always knew that the wizarding world would have to find out one day.' He said, finally.

Celestin frowned, unsure as to what he meant by his cryptic words. 'You're being rather sphinxish, Marius. Care to elaborate?'

Marius finished the stitches and began to wrap a bandage around his arm to prevent them from catching on his clothes. 'What I mean is, it might be to our advantage if they were to find you.' He looked him in the eye, 'If they were to find the _real_ you.'

'What!' Celestin spluttered and spun round to stare at the man. 'Have you finally gone senile or something?' He tugged his arm into the bathrobe sleeve, muttering obscenities under his breath.

'I don't mean the you that you have been for the past thirteen years, Celestin.' Marius said.

Celestin looked at him confused, before a slightly nervous expression made its way to his face. 'You don't mean…'

'Well,' Marius pushed back his dark hair and looked Celestin in the eyes. 'You know that a lot of Voldemort's activity has been focused around Hogwarts. First the Philosopher's stone, then, from what I have heard, the memory from his school days forcing someone to open the chamber of secrets.' He pushed back Celestin's fringe, revealing a strange, lightning-blot shaped scar on his forehead above his left eyes. He traced his pale fingers over the mark. 'I am sure Albus will want you to go to Hogwarts once they find you, seeing as he is Headmaster there. Plus, Albus was one of the only other people, apart from myself, who heard the prophecy that night. Albus might be able to help us in your destiny.'

Celestin hesitated for a second, an interested look spreading on his face. 'I guess it could prove useful…' he admitted. 'After all, it was him who defeated the dark lord Grindelwald, so he must be experienced in their handling.' He sighed and tugged at his long, damp hair nervously. 'Still, I know I'm gonna hate the attention "Harry Potter" is going to get. I'm not exactly what they are expecting. The boy they expect is not a killer, Marius.' He idly touched a tiny golden mark on his neck, just over the artery that ran through his throat– the vampiric mark of protection. 'The boy they expect is also not one raised by a vampire, nor brought under their protection either.'

Contrary to popular belief amongst the Magical people, this marking, though it meant being adopted in some way by a Vampire, or Vampiric clan, did not make that person a vampire themselves, though it did have added benefits. One was that it gave the person more heightened senses. The other was that it stopped other vampires from using that person for a food source, as it made them "family" – kin to the vampires. Celestin knew that this was a sacred law amongst the vampires that none have ever dared to break.

'They won't know.' Marius countered.

'Feh'

'And I will continue to lower the Death-eater ranks in your absence.'

'Feh'

Marius gave him an amused look. 'You really don't like the idea, do you?'

'About as much as the idea of kissing Borgin – of course I don't! But if we're going to get anywhere, I guess I'll have to deal with it. I'm more concerned for the house if I'm sorted into Slytherin, though. I don't think Albus will be pleased if he finds that the snake-house's population has dramatically been reduced by the end of the year. I know all too well that the children of many Death-eaters are in that house, though, mind you, there are probably supporters in other houses as well...'

'You might be able to get information from them,' Marius suggested.

'That is certainly true…' He looked at him, eyes darkening. 'But if they join with him of their own will, I will not hold back.'

He was silent for a moment. Marius put a hand on Celestin's shoulder. 'We will cross that bridge when it comes. But for now, we can only plan ahead and be ready for when the time comes.'

Celestin looked away from the vampire for a second, thinking, his eyes resting on the guns, Dies and Nox, and blade Masamune resting on the desk. He knew he had to do this if he was going to find out any more about Voldemort – enough to put him away in the afterlife for good. And Hogwarts was where it had all began, where the boy Tom Riddle began his transformation into the monster known as Voldemort. After a moment, he smiled. 'Marius… I think it's time that I paid Hogwarts a little visit. I guess Harry Potter is finally going to return to the wizarding world after all…'

TBC

Chosha's notes 

_So, Celestin is ready for an adventure of a different kind – Hogwarts. So, what did you think? If you've got any Questions, constructive criticisms or general pointers or Ideas (If I like said ideas, I will dedicate the chapter to you!) then please review and I'll try to answer your messages. Just so you know, all votes will continue until Hogwarts officially opens and the train leaves the station, so if you really, really want a paring of one sort or another, you can vote several times. I'll keep you posted on that._

_Next time on Celestin: _

_Celestin heads off to Hogwarts to gain admittance to Hogwarts by meeting the Headmaster himself. I don't know who to feel the more sorry for…Next episode: Meeting Albus._

_But until then, Ja ne!_

_Chosha Kurenai xXx_


	5. Meeting Albus

**Chosha's Notes**

_Hey everyone! Good to see you back and thank you to those people who reviewed last time. Just so you know how the votes are going, so far its mostly between HP-Daphne Greengrass and HP-Fem!Blaise. But you can still change it, as Votes for that are still open._

_As the house Harry is to go into, I've had several people asking for one house or another, and I got curious. So, here's another vote about where to put Harry:_

_Ravenclaw_

_Slytherin_

_Independent study_

_I'm afraid Hufflepuff would just not go with Celestin Harry and I'm trying for different friends, so I think Griffindor is not part of this either, but if you want one, tell me. At the moment, I'm leaning towards Independent study, as then Harry can have friends in different houses and wont be completely part of the 'house war' thing, making it easier to gather information, etc. But still, I'd like to hear what you think. _

_One last thing – this isn't a manipulative Dumbledore thing. Albus and Celestin may have their differences throughout, but Albus is doing it in Harry's interest. Harry, of course, already knows most of the stuff Dumbles does, so it wouldn't work. But, I'll speak of this as things come. Now enough of me. Go! Go read!_

_Last time on Celestin:_

_Celestin and Marius plotted about what Celestin heard and decide its time that "Harry Potter" return to the wizarding world. And first stop is the headmaster's office._

**Chapter Five**

**Meeting Albus**

The forbidden forest surrounding Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was surprisingly calm and tranquil, despite the fact that it was full of many of the most dangerous of magical creatures having made habitat there. Of course, this was a defence for Hogwarts, as the forest was one of the nearest places to the Hogwarts grounds to apparate, except perhaps Hogsmeade, and the only place to arrive without anyone noticing you. Anyone who attempted to get into the Hogwarts grounds secretly, for instance, a death eater; they might get eaten before they made a single step if they weren't careful. But right now, in the middle of a bright summer's day, the sun flickering lazily like diamonds in the leafy canopy and birds twittering prettily in the trees, much of the danger of the forest was hidden, waiting for darkness to fall. For Celestin, he had already decided it was the perfect chance to get into Hogwarts to speak privately with Albus without alerting the entire wizarding world to his presence – especially where that damned reporter Rita Skitter was concerned.

The peace was disturbed when a loud pop brought the assassin right into the centre of a clearing rather unceremoniously. Celestin crashed to the ground as his feet slammed into the floor, the force making him land painfully in a heap, which erupted in a stream of rather colourful curses that would make half the Aurors in the ministry blush.

Most people would have thought this a strange way for an assassin to appear, and Celestin would actually agree with you. With Portkeys, a witch or wizard, Celestin found out, reacted more violently the stronger magic they had. Yes, he knew that Albus, who was considered one of the strongest wizards of the age, never fell and always looked regal when he used a Portkey. But for someone of Albus' standing it wouldn't show much decorum to have him falling flat on his face every time he went in public. There were spells that helped the person to remain standing after the use of a Portkey. However, Celestin would also have to say appearing in this very unceremonious way gave him several advantages. If someone found out where he was going and attacked the moment he arrived, they would all aim as body height. However, if Celestin were on the floor, the curses would just fire over the top of him. The other reason was that who would expect an assassin like him to be a fourteen-year-old sprawled unceremoniously on the floor. It caused people to underestimate him and become careless, and carelessness meant death. About five of his targets had been taken out of the world of the living, just because they had seen his rather undignified entrance. Still, no matter how many advantages it had for him, it still had Celestin cursing like a wand for several minutes straight, despite the fact he had charmed his clothes to be extra cushioned for the landings.

Having finally run out of swear words, Celestin pushed himself to his feet and dusted off his earth-coloured, muggle-style clothing – a long brown robe-like coat that reached his ankles, heavy darker brown trousers and cream-coloured sleeveless shirt – and straightening the wand holster on his arm under his wide coat sleeves. Adjusting the holsters for Nox and Dies, he glanced round his surroundings that seemed to have become calm once more after his, admittedly loud entrance. Then again, he wasn't trying to be silent. After a moment of studying to get his bearings, Celestin strode off in the direction of Hogwarts castle.

It wasn't long before the forest began to thin out and Celestin found himself at the edge of the forest close to a small, rounded hut at the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. Further up the path past a large pumpkin parch and an impressively sized lake, in which some sort of squid lazily waved its long tentacles in the sun, was a large castle that put many of the Death-eaters mansion homes (the ones from old, rich, pureblood families, anyway) to shame.

The castle could only be described as 'Magic' in his opinion. Hogwarts was perched atop of a high mountain and he was sure the scenery must be breathtaking, especially on such a clear day as this. It was easily ten times larger than Alric manor, with hundreds of turrets that seemed to try to scrape the skies, easily rivalling the muggle skyscrapers he had seem in America. Thousends of windows glistened like crystal in the sun and, somehow, the whole place breathed both elegance and welcome all at the same time. Celestin smiled. He was impressed.

As he began to walk up towards the castle, he heard a loud barking and a voice yelling in his direction. Celestin paused and looked round to find the largest man he had ever seen running up the path towards him. He was easily seven foot tall, His face almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could just make out his eyes that glinted like back beetles under thick, bushy eyebrows. To any normal person, the sight would have been intimidating, but to someone who had been raised by a Vampire and trained all over the world in every fighting style you could think of, it barely caused Celestin to blink.

'Oi, what yer doin'? This' private grounds. Hogwarts isn' open yet!'

Celestin turned and nodded to the giant man. 'I'm sorry, sir, but believe me, I'm not trying to damage school property or anything. I'm here to see Albus. Its something of importance, you see,' he said calmly.

The man looked a little surprised, but nodded slowly. 'Oh, to see Dumbledore? Well, why didn' yer say so. Come with me, I'll show yer to his office then.'

Celestin smiled. 'My thanks.'

The man began to take him up towards the castle, but Celestin could feel him watching him out of the corner of his eyes. Finally, the giant broke the silence. 'So, what's yer name?'

'I'm called Celestin Alric,' Celestin said easily. Well, it wasn't entirely a lie. While Celestin was under the care of Marius and they were training around the world, they had both agreed that the name "Harry Potter" would be too risky to use, so Marius had renamed him Celestin and gave him the name Alric until the time was right. However, until he had spoken with Albus, he wasn't about to let his true identity leak out into the public.

Celestin saw the man's eyes crinkle into a warm smile. 'My names Hagrid. Rubeus Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures Professor and Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts.' He stretched out a large hand and Celestin shook it.

'Pleased to meet you, Professor'

'Call me Hagrid, everybody does,' the giant man said. Celestin nodded in thanks.

The man led him through the large doors of the castle and into a large entrance hall. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, but the ceiling was too high to make out. A magnificent, white marble staircase faced them, leading off into the upper floors. He followed Hagrid through the corridors, silently memorising the rout he was taking. After all, if Celestin needed to make a hasty retreat, he would need to know the layout as soon as he possibly could. After all, one couldn't be too careful.

It wasn't long before a large statue of a rather ugly Gargoyle at the end of the deserted hall came into view. It was tall, almost reaching the ceiling in height, its large, stone wings loosely unfurled at its back and its mouth was agape, revealing sharp fangs. Its eyes stared off into the corridor blankly.

'This is the entrance ter Professor Dumbledore's office, see,' Hagrid told Celestin as he came to a halt outside the stone gargoyle. 'Now, wha' was tha' password again…' he mumbled under his breath, scratching the back or his head in though. 'Oh, yeah, I know. Cockroach Cluster.'

The gargoyle immediately sprang to life and leapt aside, the wall behind it splitting in two, revealing a spiralling staircase that continually moved upwards, resembling an escalator. Celestin almost burst out laughing at the password. One would have thought that the man known to be one of the most powerful wizards in the world, having defeated the dark lord Grindelwald in 1945 and known to be the only wizard Voldemort feared, would have thought of a more impressive password than the name of a sweat. Even if said sweet was one that only the most insane wizard had to have invented.

'C'mon, Mr Alric,' Hagrid said, not showing the slightest reaction at the password. He stepped onto the moving stairs, Celestin close behind and was slowly carried up in smooth circles. Finally, they reached the top, where Celestin found himself faced by a large, gleaming oak door bearing a golden knocker shaped like a griffin. After a moment's hesitation, Hagrid raised his large fist and knocked on the door, receiving a 'Come in' from within. Hagrid pushed open the door and Celestin followed him inside, looking round with interest.

It was a large, circular room; the walls covered in portraits of what Celestin guessed were ex-headmasters of the school, all snoozing in their frames. A number of strange-looking silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables and emitted strange whirring sounds and puffs of smoke. There was a shelf, upon which sat the sorting hat – a shabby, fraid wizards hat that, according to Marius, once belonged to the founder Godric Gryffindor. Standing on the back of the chair behind the desk was a magnificent bird about the size of a swan with a beautiful golden and Red plumage, that watched him with interest in its calm, dark eyes. On the chair itself sat a tall, slim old man with a long, flowing beard and hair of silver. He was wearing long flowing crimson robes lined with golden stars and silver moons. Perched on a crooked nose that looked as if it might have been broken at least twice, sat half-moon shaped glasses, bright, blue eyes twinkled behind them. He seemed a benevolent old grandfather, but Celestin wasn't fooled. He knew that Dumbledore had more power in his little finger than half the ministry put together.

When he entered, the old wizard showed no sign of surprise. Rather, he smiled. 'Ah, Hagrid. To what do I owe the pleasure?'

'I was jus' bringin' up Mr Celestin Alric 'ere ter meet yer, professor, sir. He says he's got summat o importance ter talk ter yer abou'' He waved a large hand in Celestin's direction as Celestin stepped forward and nodded to the professor in acknowledgement. Celestin noticed the professor's eyes flash in familiarity when Hagrid said his last name, as if he had remembered it from somewhere.

'Well, I've gotta be gettin' back to work, Professor,' his eyes flicked to Celestin for a moment, before returning to Albus, 'Unless yer want me up he, 'o course.'

Though Albus' face never changed, his blue eyes scrutinised Celestin, as if trying to place where he might have seen him before. Celestin almost smiled at the giant's concern. It wouldn't be the first time someone had been suspicious of him. It was the constantly wary look in his eyes, Marius had told him, which tended to set people on edge. But that was what happened when you became an assassin. To Celestin's surprise, however, Albus shook his head and smiled at the giant man.

'No, that's fine, Hagrid. Thank you all the same.'

Hagrid nodded and, giving Celestin one last glance left the room, leaving Celestin standing alone with the old headmaster. They were both silent for a moment, until Celestin smiled. 'Hagrid seems very loyal to you, Headmaster,' he said simply.

Albus chuckled softly. 'Indeed he is. I would trust Hagrid with my life. Now, Mr Alric, may I offer you a drink of tea? Or perhaps you would like a sherbet lemon?'

Celestin looked at the bag the man offered and, after a moment's hesitation took one. After all, Marius had taught him etiquette about as much as fighting. However, he gave the Headmaster a slightly interested look. 'Isn't that a muggle sweet? I didn't think any other non-muggle-born wizard knew of them'

Albus nodded pleasantly. 'Yes. A friend of mine a long time ago introduced me to them and I have grown rather fond of them myself.' He waved a hand at the chair opposite his desk. 'Would you care to sit down?'

Celestin nodded in thanks and took the seat, waiting for the professor to make the first move, mostly out of his assassin instincts. Once Celestin was sitting down comfortably, Albus spoke again. 'Now, Mr Alric, You wished to speak to me about something of importance?'

Celestin fiddled with the ties of his bandanna with one hand, fixing his green eyes on the headmaster's face. 'It's a bit…complicated. Firstly there are a few things I must tell you, before I can tell you anything else. You see, my real name isn't Celestin Alric, though I have been using it for some time now.' He tugged off the bandanna and lifted his fringe, revealing his lightning bolt shaped scar.

Albus, at first, looked as if he was going to faint on the spot. At first he gaped at the scar, then, to Celestin's surprise, tears came to the old man's eyes, but they sparkled tenfold. Celestin had to wonder how the man could look so old, yet look so undoubtedly young all at the same time. 'Harry!' he cried.

Celestin smiled. 'Yeah, but I haven't used that name in a while. Professor?'

Albus had suddenly looked very old again. 'I'm sorry, my boy,' he said softly, hearing the mild concern in Celestin's voice. 'When you disappeared, the whole of the wizarding world thought that you had died. I felt…particularly responsible for that, as I was the one who left you at your aunt and uncles house, in hopes you would have protection under them…'

Celestin waved it off. 'Hey, it turned out for the best. Don't blame yourself. You were just doing what you thought was best under the circumstances, especially since there was the prophecy to think about and all.'

Albus looked as if he had sat on a pin. 'You…know about the prophecy?'

Celestin nodded. 'Not from the copy in the ministry, but yes, I've heard it. The night you heard the prophecy, I believe there was another with you, yes?'

Albus thought for a second, then his eyes sparkled. 'I see. Then Marius is still alive? Now I know why the name "Alric" sounded familiar to me. However, I heard that he had died the same night Voldemort attacked Godric's hollow.'

'No. As Marius would say, it takes much more to kill a vampire. You see, Marius knew that Voldemort wasn't truly gone, so took me and trained me in order to combat Voldemort when that day comes.'

Albus nodded, Slowly he began to stroke the phoenix' feathers gently with one hand. 'Back then, I had hoped to give you the chance of a normal, loving childhood under the protection your mother left the day she died.'

'I can understand, I suppose. But I'm afraid I would have had to find out one day or another, wouldn't I? How long would you have been able to hide it from me, before it became too late? How many more innocent people might have died, if I wasn't ready? And please, Professor, could you stop trying to read my mind.'

Albus looked a little surprised then smiled a little. 'I'm sorry, my boy. However, it looks as if you are very well protected indeed, under Marius' supervision.' Albus nodded, 'Yes. I see that Marius might have been the one to choose the better of the decisions in this case. Despite popular belief, I am still human, still prone to mistakes, and, unfortunately for someone as intelligent as I, those mistake tend to be substantially bigger.'

Celestin chuckled. 'Well, I'm glad you are, really. I think there are enough moronic wizards who seem to think that they are more than human – which, I guess, brings me on to why I decided to show myself now, I guess.' Celestin grew serious. 'Listen, I've heard rumours that the Tri-wizard tournament is going to be held here at Hogwarts. Is that really true?'

'Yes. I believe the Ministry has been having a lot of problems setting everything up, what with the events of the Quidditch world cup.' Albus noted.

Celestin fiddled with his bandanna in his hands, sorting is thoughts. Finally he said. 'I guess you know about death-eaters having got a little more active than normal since Voldemort was defeated, what with being the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.'

'Ah yes, Marius would have told that to you, as he was a supporter of the original order himself'

'Yes, but it looks like you're going to have problems. This tournament is a perfect opportunity for someone to harm one of the champions involved, and it's a chance I know that Voldemort and his followers would be dying to take.' He leaned forward on the desk. 'Basically, Marius and I think it might be best if we helped out the order ourselves, because if I know Voldemort – which I do because of this lovely present he left me,' He indicated his scar. He knew Albus knew what he meant by that by the proud look that flickered over his face. 'I know that Voldemort will probably take the opportunity to take control here during whatever Chaos he decides to put his twisted mind to at the time. So, Marius and I decided that, if you'd let me, I will be coming to Hogwarts this year to hopefully prevent that and put Tommy back in his place – cause he's long overdue. And, there is also the fact that I need your help about as much as you need mine.'

Albus looked rather surprised and Celestin longed to use Legilimency to see what the man was thinking, but decided against it. Besides, he'd have ages to do it if he was going to be in Hogwarts for the next year or more. Suddenly, he began to smile and his eyes glittered behind his glasses. 'I'm honoured you place your trust in me. But apart from letting you into Hogwarts – which I am happy to do, of course – what else can I do for you, Harry?'

The assassin grinned at him. 'Well, I need all the surprised I can against old Mouldy-wart,' to which Albus' eyes shone even more as her chuckled. 'So I was wondering I you have anyone who could also teach me to become an Animagus.'

'Well, our resident Animagus is Professor McGonagall, who is our Transfiguration Professor and also a member of the order. I'm sure she will be happy to teach you how to become an Animagus.' Albus said, as if trying to make up for the years he had lost with Harry. Celestin smiled inwardly. He could see he and the Headmaster were going to get on very well. 'Do you have anywhere to stay until term begins?'

Celestin laughed. 'Headmaster, I have been completely elusive for the passed thirteen years. I think I can remain safe and homed for another few weeks, wouldn't you say?'

Albus smiled, his eyes twinkling merrily. He somehow looked younger than he did when Celestin had first seen him. 'Very true, Harry.' He outstretched his hand, which Celestin took. 'Well then, Welcome to Hogwarts, Mr Potter.'

TBC

**Chosha's notes**

_Well, things are going to get interesting now, as Celestin is now ready to head off to Hogwarts to become a student. Oh the horror. Anyways, I know, not much action going on here, but it will come as the story progresses. However, forgive me for these not as action packed chapters. I'm afraid I don't like to just rush into the story. _

_Now, just a little note on Marius - I'm glad you like him, to start off, but I have been a little vague with him, haven't I? Well, I will be doing an explanation on him in later chapters, and I'm thinking of doing a Prequel of Marius as he took Harry as a baby and Celestin's training years. What do you think? Should I do that too?_

_Anyway, any Question's, votes, comments or constructive criticisms? Don't hesitate to review and tell me. I'll try my best to get back to you._

_Next time on Celestin:_

_Harry has returned to the wizarding world and is ready to go on his biggest mission yet – Hogwarts! Next episode: Return of Potter_


	6. Return of Potter: Part One

**Chosha's Notes**

Helloooooo and welcome back to Celestin everyone, or if this is your first time reading it, welcome to the fic! I want to tell you that all votes are now officially CLOSED. As in, no more votes on either one, all right? I'm not going to tell you which one it is, so you'll have to just read and find out, all right? Good. Now, please, don't let me make you wait any longer – on with the fic!

Disclaimer: just a reminder, so I don't get sued. I do not own Harry Potter. All rights belong to JK Rowling, to which all copyright etc is reserved. This applies to all chapters previous and upcoming.

Last time on Celestin

Celestin made his way to Hogwarts to confer with Albus about becoming a student at the school and Albus, who now knows all about Celestin, promises to help out by letting him in to Hogwarts and arranging to help Celestin gain a new trick – the animagus ability.

**Chapter Six**

**Return of Potter**

'So, things went well, I take it?'

Celestin glanced up from the chess game he had been playing to look into the amber eyes of his mentor and friend. They were sitting in one of Alric manor's many sitting rooms a little after sundown. The fire in the harth blazed, curtsey of Bede, and several candles were lit as well, spilling a soft glow onto the chessboard the two figures had been concentrating on that seemed, to say the least, rather jumbled. The Vampire was sitting lazily on the crimson coach opposite him; his pale, elegantly chiselled mouth was curved into a semi-smile as he looked over at the green-eyed assassin. Celestin smiled in return as he registered the question.

'As well as I hoped it would. If all goes as planned, I'll not only be in prime position against Voldemort, but I'll also be able to gain a few more tricks to hide up my sleeves.' He said in return, moving the knight to his chosen location.

Marius chuckled as he brushed away the long fringe from a golden eye with an elegant hand. 'So you will, my young friend.' He answered, moving another chess piece on the board. 'Though I am somewhat surprised it went so well. Albus may be willing to help with things like this, but he does tend to be something of a meddlesome old goat, even when he was a younger man. But that's to be expected.'

He glanced at Celestin, who was now frowning at the board, contemplating his next move. Marius had always insisted on playing chess with his charge, not just because he enjoyed the game, but because it was also good practice in strategy – something that Celestin would use a lot when it came to assassinations. And it was very good practice for him, even more so when the pawns you ordered could argue back at you. Still, Celestin always found himself at a loss trying to make sense of the chaotic board, and Marius' seemingly random moves. Plus the fact was that out of all strategy games, Chess was not the boy's favourite.

'I suppose you have made all the arrangements?' Marius continued.

'Uh-huh,' Celestin said, pulling out a parchment envelope from the inside of his brown coat slung over the back of the armchair and slapped it down on the polished wooden table. 'What I'll need to maintain my cover are all there, so it is likely I'll be heading off to Diagon alley again within the next few days. Plus there is also the train ticket from platform nine and three quarters for September 1st.' He smiled, his eyes glittering mischievously. 'I'm looking forward to it.'

Marius shot him an amused look. 'I'm sure you are. You certainly enjoy causing chaos.'

'A habit I picked up from you, no doubt,' he chortled.

They fell silent again as Marius ordered his knight to decapitate one of Celestin's bishops. Celestin looked up at the vampire from under his fringe. There seemed to be tenseness around his shoulders, a harness about the cat-like eyes. However, they were so well hidden that if Celestin hadn't been looking for them and didn't know the man as well as he did, he might have overlooked them. He sighed and looked into Marius' eyes. 'You're worried, though, aren't you?'

Marius raised an eyebrow in surprise. After a moment, he shook his head, his eyes softening as he looked into Celestin's face. 'We cannot predict everything, try as we might.' He said softly, 'It is impossible to predict the consequences of any action. While you're at Hogwarts, it will be close to impossible to get into contact with you at short notice, especially with the new security measures they have been taking since the world cup and with the mail being checked all messages will have to be encoded. You will, in almost every way, be on your own in there. I cannot help but worry a little, because in every way that matters, you are a son to me.'

Celestin gave him a reassuring smile. 'It can't be helped. But worrying about things that might happen isn't going to help us. You know that.'

'It never makes it any less hard to bare.'

Celestin sighed, hiding his eyes under his fringe. 'I know…'

They fell silent once more, the only sound coming from the crackling of the fire in the harth and the ordering of the chess pieces, making the board seem even more random than before. After a moment, Marius spoke again. '…There is something that might be of help to us, in case you need to get into contact with me, and gain help if you needed it.'

Celestin glanced at him in confusion, before frowning in irritation. 'Marius, what did we say about being Sphinxish? Care to elaborate a little?'

Marius glanced at him with a half-amused smile, before becoming serious again. 'I believe you already know about the Vampire council.'

Celestin nodded, moving his rather vindictive queen to bash the lights out of the vampire's knight. 'Just about as much as you've told me about and what I gather from any of your associates that come over here. Why?'

'Well,' he said, putting his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his fingertips, 'There is a meeting place we use on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, the village next to Hogwarts, that often has many of my associates staying at all times of the year. For this year, Lord Shadow is also going to be present there.'

Celestin almost knocked the chessboard to the floor. 'Lord Shadow!' he gasped, feeling cross between astonished, impressed and dumbstruck. Lord Shadow, as he was known, was one of the most influential members of the vampiric council. Not only that, but he was also exceptionally strong as well. In the face of Shadow, Marius' strength was like that of a child. However, the two vampires actually shared a close bond, one that only came from the Turning. It had been Shadow who had, with Marius' permission, turned him into the Vampire he was today. The fact was that the two got on famously well for a Maker and Made. Celestin had only ever seen him once or twice, but when he did, the two acted like family – father and son. In a way, Celestin could see that was exactly what they were.

Marius chuckled at Celestin's exclamation. 'Yes. Shadow knows very well what we have hoped to accomplish before this all started and strongly supports what we are doing. I will ask him to watch out for you and aid you when you feel you need that extra assistance. One, of course, can never be too careful. The marking I gave you, adopting you into the vampire clan, will allow you any help you might need if you show it to the vampires.'

'So, where is this place, anyway?' Celestin asked with interest.

'It's an inn on the outskirts of town, known as the Canticle. You'll recognise it by the vampiric symbol you had when you were "adopted", so to speak. Show them your mark and inform them you wish to see Shadow. Shadow, of course, already knows about you and will aid you in my stead.'

Celestin, still feeling somewhat shocked, shook his head with a soft breath of a laugh. 'You never change, do you? Always fret about me…' he met his eyes. 'All right, I'll do that, just stop worrying. I'm not made out of china clay, Marius.'

Marius smiled softly, flashing a pearl-white fang. 'Ah, but to us you are.'

'You just let our mortality scare you.' He shot back, only half playfully. 'And its not my fault I get in to trouble…most of the time. But if it makes you feel any better, I'll contact Shadow if things get tough, okay?'

'That's all I ask. Checkmate.'

Celestin blinked at the man across from him, then blinked at the board. He hadn't seen that one coming that was for sure!

'How do you do that!' he asked incredulously while Marius laughed at the look of disbelief on the young assassin's face as he stared at the board. Celestin threw up his hands in defeat. 'Argh, I've had it! I give up!'

0C0

Merely hours after Celestin had visited Albus and they had made the arrangements for Celestin to attend Hogwarts, the Wizarding world was in an uproar. The Daily Prophet was having a field day – they were selling papers by the dozen. Not only had Death-eaters attacked the world cup, but also the infamous assassin had turned up AND managed to escape right under the ministry's nose. Then the boy who defeated Voldemort 13 years ago and had vanished, long pronounced dead, had appeared – and alive and well no less. In light of all this, the ministry was in a panic to find their long-lost hero, in case the death eaters and this assassin were out for his blood. Celestin found it all very amusing. He had to admit that Marius was right – even if he didn't mean it, Celestin always found causing chaos very funny, especially where the dunderhead of a minister was concerned.

The green eyed assassin walked through the crowded train-station with a small smile as he watched the people hurrying this way and that, rushing about to wherever it was they needed to go, not pausing except to ask the conductor the way to a certain platform. He loved people watching. Magic or muggle world, he didn't really care. Perhaps it had something to do with how he was raised and all the things he had discovered about different cultures. When he started his role as an assassin, people watching had taken on a more sinister quality, of course, but he never quite lost his fascination with it. Were the people off to boarding school, or were they going to work? Were they visiting family, or were they going on vacation? Were they going to meet lovers, or were they just going out with friends? The possibilities were endless.

One thing was for certain, though. It didn't matter where they were going; it was ridiculously easy to pick out those who were not altogether normal. It seemed as though many of wizards from more pureblooded lines had absolutely no idea how to dress as normal, non-magical folk. Celestin had to force himself not to burst out laughing as one wizard walked passed dressed in what seemed to be a poncho and a kilt. It was hilarious, the looks some people were sending his way.

Celestin, however, had no problems dressing up like a muggle. He was an assassin, so it was only right that he was able to blend into whatever crowds he needed to, so Marius had shown him the ways of both worlds so Celestin could fit into whichever he chose quite naturally. Today he was wearing a loose white T-shirt, a pair of plain, heavy black trousers and boots that looked similar to Doc Martins, except that they were made out of dragon-hide (Not that the muggles could tell the difference, of course). His favourite red robe-like coat was draped on top of his trunk, which he pushed in front of him and he wore a matching red bandanna. He had decided not to take his owl, Hedwig, with him in the station, as it would attract too much attention, so he had already sent her along ahead of him and had shrunk the cage to fit into his pocket. Needless to say, he blended into the crowds of the station.

It was about 10:15 am. Celestin decided that he wanted to get there a little early just so he could get his bearings on the place. He didn't like not knowing about something. It made him fidgety. He snorted, irritated. One of these days, his stupid assassin instincts were going to make him loose his sanity…or what was left of it anyway. Sighing, he made his way towards platforms nine and ten. Marius had already explained that the way to get to platform nine and three quarters was to walk through the wall between the platforms nine and ten. He amused himself with that thought imagining what would happen if a muggle saw someone walk through and tried to copy. The image of them bouncing off the wall was highly amusing.

He chuckled and made his way up to the barrier, pushing his trolley casually towards it as if he didn't have a care in the world. With a last flicker of his eyes over the ignorant crowds, he walked through, feeling an odd shiver pass through him and, when his eyes adjusted, the sight of the Hogwarts express came into view.

Celestin paused for a moment to get a good look at his transportation. It was quite impressive – nowhere near as impressive as the bullet trains over in Japan, but still, it was impressive. The Hogwarts express was a deep crimson steam engine with its name printed at the front. Smoke billowed from the top, ready for when the time came to set off, even if it wouldn't be until 11:00. The station was packed, even though it was so early and the students, with their parents or guardians stood around chatting, or spoke to children who were looking out through open windows on the train, kissing their parents' goodbye. Celestin watched them for a moment with a sad smile, before tearing his eyes away to scan the crowd. He took a deep breath. Well, this was it. Celestin was off to Hogwarts…as Harry Potter. He hid a grimace and headed off towards the carriages to find a compartment.

It didn't take too long and Celestin pushed his trunk into the compartment of the last carriage before throwing himself unceremoniously onto the seat. It didn't seem like long after that when he felt a jolt of the train as it began to move. He glanced at his watch. It was dot on 11:00. Well, at least they were on time. Celestin went back to lazing in the chair again, but after only a few minutes, he sighed in boredom and pulled out a book from his trunk for something to do while he was waiting. Swinging his legs up on the seat, he settled down to read.

However, he hadn't got farther than the first paragraph when the door to the compartment slid open and two figures entered. Celestin looked at them from over the top of his book. The first figure was a tall black boy who appeared to be about Celestin's age with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes. The other was a girl with golden-brown hair and intelligent sapphire blue eyes, which rested on Celestin.

'Sorry about this,' the girl said, 'but everywhere else is full. You don't mind sharing, do you?'

Celestin looked at them a moment longer, then threw his legs from the seat. 'Sure. Why not?'

They grinned in gratitude and sat down on the chairs opposite. Celestin returned the grin and went back to reading, but was interrupted when the boy spoke. 'By the way, I'm Blaise Zabini, this is Daphne Greengrass.'

'Make fun of the name and I will have to hurt you.' The girl said in a deceptively sweet tone. Celestin grinned. She looked like she might have a lot of spirit.

'Well, at least your parents weren't stupid enough to call you Rhea Lee Greengrass. Get it? Really green grass!' Zabini pointed out. Daphne groaned and whacked him on the head while Zabini ducked out of the way with a snigger. Daphne glared daggers at him before glancing over at Celestin again.

'Anyway, we hadn't seen you before, so we guessed you must be new here, but you do look a little old to be a first year,' she added.

'I'm not,' Celestin replied. 'I guess you could say I was home schooled for a while and I'm starting out late. I'm in fourth year.'

'Oh, that's our year!' Daphne said with a welcoming smile. 'Cool. So, what's your name then?'

Celestin contemplated telling them the name he had been using for the past thirteen years, but decided against it. With a grin, he held out his hand. 'Oh, I'm Harry Potter.'

Daphne took the hand. 'Well, welcome to Hogwa- Harry Potter!' She yelped. Zabini stared at him in a stupor as Daphne jumped off her seat in utter shock. 'You're JOKING!'

Celestin wanted to burst out laughing at the looks of shock on their faces. 'No I'm not.'

'Prove it.' Zabini commanded.

Hm, that one was definitely a strong personality wasn't he? He liked the guy already. Celestin gave him a sly smile. 'Alright then,' and pulled off his red bandanna, pushing back his fringe to reveal the still-red lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Zabini eyes looked as if they were about to fall out of their sockets and he began to splutter.

'Merlin, It really it Harry Potter!' Daphne managed to squeak.

'You were expecting maybe Santa Clause?' Celestin joked good-naturedly.

Daphne managed to shake her head, staring at the scar for a moment in fascination. 'Well, It's just the fact that everyone said that, well, you were dead.'

'They did?' Celestin said, his tone light. 'Strange, no one saw fit to inform me. You would have thought I would have stopped walking around…' Zabini and Daphne laughed at the comment. Celestin shrugged. 'I just don't like getting attention like that.' what assassin does? he thought with a shudder.'Imean, I only remember a little of what happened and that's nothing brilliant. A family friend who found me raised me and I was known as Celestin for a while, so you probably wouldn't have known it was me.'

'You had an Alias?' asked Zabini. His face broke into a grin. 'Wow! I wish I had one.'

'You know, there were rumours that you were coming to Hogwarts running down the whole train.' Daphne said. 'It was the first time any of the Gryffindors have even spoken two words to us Slytherins that WEREN'T insults!'

Celestin almost paused when he heard the girl say that, but then decided to ignore it. These two seemed nice enough and not the type to be a death-eater (and he had to admit, if anyone knew what it took to be a good candidate as a death-eater, it would be him.) Besides, he wasn't here to get involved in some age old Gryffindor-Slytherin wars. Befriending these two also would help him get the inside scoop on any potential death-eater types, even if he himself didn't become a Slytherin.

'So, you two are in the Slytherin house, huh? Anyone I should watch out for?' he asked, keeping his tone light.

'What, in Slytherin, or in general?' asked Zabini.

Celestin smiled. 'Well, either really. You guys have been here longer than I have, so I don't know how things run properly just yet. And, from what I understand, Slytherins tend to be good judges of character, seeing as they are the more cunning of the four houses.'

Daphne gave him a grin. 'Why, thank you good sir. Since you asked so nicely, I guess we can give you an overview. Okay, the first thing is that-'

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and it slid open, causing Daphne to cut off and they all glanced round to see who it was. Celestin looked them over.

This time it was two boys who stood in the doorway, looking a little nervously round at them. The first was a boy with sort, mousy-blond hair and intelligent grey-blue eyes. He was quite tall – about five foot ten, give or take an inch, with broad shoulders. The second boy was bout a head shorter than the first and built lighter as well, with slightly longer, curly dark brown hair and a cheerful face with sparkling brown eyes that seemed full of energy and life. Both of them were wearing their school uniforms already. Celestin could see a blue crest with a bird on the front in black – some sort of eagle it looked like. Must be in Ravenclaw then.

The taller boy glanced round at them, before sighing and turning to his companion. 'This is the last car and it being used, Tony.'

Tony rolled his eyes. 'Wow, I would never have been able to work that one out, Terry. Thanks for the news flash.'

'Shut it,' Terry retorted, before turning to the other three again. 'Hi, Daphne, Zabini.' He said wearily. 'You don't mind us joining you, do you. There's literally no room. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they've got more first years this year.'

Daphne waved a hand to the empty seats. 'Go on then, cuz. But you,' she added, glaring at the smaller boy. 'You better behave yourself, Anthony Goldstein, you hear me!'

Anthony snapped to attention. 'Yes, Ma'am!'

Celestin looked between Terry and Daphne, trying to find some sort of family resemblance and failing miserably. 'You two are cousins?' he said rather redundantly, deciding to give up.

Daphne nodded, 'Yeah, on my mother's side, unfortunately.'

'Hey!' Yelped Terry.

Daphne just sniggered at the ruffled look on the Ravenclaw's face, Anthony laughing along as well. Finally, he looked over at Celestin. 'Oh, you must be another first year, right?'

'No,' Celestin said, feeling a slight growl in his voice. 'What is it with everyone automatically thinking I'm a first year anyway?' he ranted to no one in particular. 'I mean, I know I'm not tall, but you don't have to rub it in or anything…'

Anthony stared, 'Huh? You mean…you're in our year?'

Celestin almost wanted to say 'give the boy a medal,' but decided against it. He would rather have allies than enemies while out of any territory he was used to, so instead said, 'Yeah. I was home schooled, but I'll be in fourth year here this year.'

'Cool,' Anthony said with a grin. 'Well, guess we'll have to introduce ourselves. I'm Anthony Goldstein and that there is Terry Boot. So, who are you then?'

Celestin exchanged a look with Daphne and Zabini, both of whom looked back at him slyly and Celestin had to stop himself from chuckling. 'I'm nobody in particular…' he said idly, picturing what these two were going to do once they found out what his real name was.

Terry obviously didn't know what was going through his head and looked at Celestin sympathetically. 'Its all right if you've got a stupid name. We promise,' at this, he elbowed Anthony, 'we wont laugh, will we?'

Anthony rubbed his arm and glared at Terry. 'No, we wont. There was no need to hit me, Boot!'

'Oh, I don't know…' Celestin said, thoroughly enjoying himself - Zabini and Daphne were now holding their sides trying not to laugh. Terry glanced at them worriedly for a second.

'Awww, come on,' Anthony was pleading, 'be a sport.'

'Oh, all right then,' Celestin said, then grinned, pulling back his fringe to reveal his scar. 'I'm Harry Potter'

Their jaws almost hit the floor in such a comical way it they could no longer keep the laughter suppressed. It had the two Slytherins and Celestin rolling about in a fit of laughter. It looked like Terry was the first to get his wits back. A muffled squeak emerged from his mouth. 'That's "_nobody in particular_"!'

Zabini roared with laughter again, Daphne falling on him in an effort to stop laughing. Anthony finally got hit wits together again. 'That was mean! …I like you already!'

If anyone had looked into the compartment just then, they would have thought the whole lot of them insane.

TBC

Chosha's Notes

Good lord, I never realised the train section was going to be so long – I had to stop at this point and I'm going to have to finish the rest of the chapter on the next update! Anyway, here you have it – what I decided from the paring vote. I like the character of Blaise when female, don't get me wrong, but I have the image of a tall black boy stuck in my head after reading the sixth book and everything. Daphne is never really explored – only mentioned in book five, I think. So I though I'd use her. I don't want Daphne as an airhead, so you'll most likely see her as a strong (slightly violent) character. I hope it works out all right, though.

Terry is mentioned on more than one occasion, but as I am not reading the book while writing this, I don't know if he looks like this or acts like this. Sorry if I've done that wrong. If you know any better, please tell me. Anthony's is also a real character from the books – if you read book five you'll see him as one of the characters that went to the DA meeting at the Hogs Head with Michael Conner and Terry. But, there is no description of him either, so I made up my own. I hope you'll come to like my version of Anthony Goldstein.

As for the house I'm putting Celestin-Harry into…well, you'll have to wait and see. I haven't given much away by having him befriend both Slytherins and Ravenclaws. You'll find out soon enough.

Next time on Celestin

Celestin begins to get to know his new friends and some info on Hogwarts itself. We also get to see some old characters and Celestin finds out just which house he's going to be in. Next episode: Return of Potter – Part two!

Well, till next time – Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx


	7. Return of Potter: Part Two

Chosha Notes 

Hello again! Welcome back one and all to Celestin. I'm sorry it's been so long, but I've been on summer holiday, and therefore had less Internet access. However, I'm now able to get access at the local library, so hopefully, I'll get it up a little faster. Anyway, thank you for all the reviews. I never knew Celestin was getting so popular. You've probably all beaten my other fics with reviews, but please, continue with them. I love to hear what you think. For instance, I'm glad you like how Celestin is and that you like my idea of Daphne and Anthony. Just a few things to say before I start to those who I couldn't reply to, as they didn't sign in.

Petites sorcières: I don't speak French, unfortunately – only a few words. My first language is English, but I can speak a little German and a little Japanese. You could review in French, I guess, as my mom and sister know a little, but it would take me a while to translate. Guess I'm just awkward, ne? I do know of the manga of Samurai Deeper Kyo, though I've only read a few of them.

As a note: My nationality is actually British, but anyway, about those speech marks, I'm just following on from JK Rowling's style, seeing as she made up HP first. Normally, I would use "these" rather than 'these' in my speech, but I wanted to keep the original style of JK's. Sorry if it confused you at all. (It annoys me sometimes, but there you go…)

Well, with that sorted, I won't keep you any longer. Go forth and read!

Last time on Celestin:

Celestin has headed off for the train station, where he befriended Zabini and Daphne of Slytherin, and Terry and Anthony of Ravenclaw, as well as having some fun introducing himself as Harry Potter! However, there is still a long way to go before they get to Hogwarts itself by the train…

**Chapter Seven**

**Return of Potter – Part Two!**

Laughter finally under control, Celestin turned back to Daphne once more, who was still grinning at the memory of the look on the two Ravenclaw's faces. 'Anyway, Daphne. What were you saying before these two came in?'

'Oh, yes, about who to watch out for, right?' Daphne said. She shot a glare at Anthony, who gave her an innocent look. 'To start off, you better watch out for him, he's one of the most annoying people who can't seem to even say one sentence seriously!'

'I can too!' Anthony argued, pouting.

Terry shook his head with a sigh. 'You're just proving the point, 'Tony…' Anthony punched him in the arm to shut him up.

'Jokes aside, there are a few you need to be careful with,' Daphne continued, more seriously now. 'You don't really have to worry about the Hufflepuffs – they tend to stay out of everything – though that's because most are too much of pansies to do anything. Most of the Ravenclaws keep out of it all, too, though there are a few exceptions. Nothing drastic though. I'm sure these two would know more about their own house than us, though.'

'Most of us Slytherins are alright,' Zabini added. 'We all tend to look out for our own and our head of house, Professor Snape, tends to favour us. As long as you don't go over board, he's fair with us.'

'Unfortunately…not with the other houses,' Terry said with a sigh, having caught on to what the convocation was about. 'He especially has a vendetta against the Gryffindor house. Its not a bad house in itself, but if you wanna survive Snape, the other houses are a hell of a lot better.'

'There are a few in Slytherin you really need to watch out for, though,' Daphne added darkly. 'They're the ones that give us a bad reputation with the rest of the school, because they're always stirring up some sort of trouble. The ringleader of the group is a guy called Draco Malfoy.'

'Malfoy…?' Celestin asked, surprised. 'You mean Lucius Malfoy's son?'

'You've heard of him?' Zabini asked. 'Yeah, that's Malfoy. Because his father works for the ministry, Malfoy always acts as if he owns the place. He's also got a habit of casting curses on people who annoy him as well. Longbottom in Gryffindor tends to be at the end of it, because he doesn't fight back. He also hangs around with a group of lackeys as well, especially with Crabbe and Goyle. He's like a Lord with bodyguards. Acts like one too, come to think of it.' He added.

Sure, Celestin had heard of the names Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. How could he not? Their parents were full-fledged Death-eaters who had managed to escape Azkaban. And who Celestin, so far, had not come into contact with – or at least, if he did, they had fled before he got to them if he fought in a crowd – sort of like at the world cup when the Ministry arrived. He touched his chin in thought. He was going to have to keep an eye on them, just in case. With parents like theirs, it wouldn't be all that unlikely if they followed in their parent's footsteps.

'There are some in Gryffindor you need to watch out for as well,' Daphne continued. 'Usually they leave you alone unless you're in Slytherin. They seem to think Slytherin means instant evil, cause the dark lord came from our house, unfortunately. They tend to stereotype really quickly. The Weasley twins, though – that's Fred and George – they always go round pranking people from any house, so unless you want to end up with green hair or something watch out for them.'

'You've gotta admit, they are funny though!' Anthony chortled. 'They never do it just to be spiteful or anything – just a load of fun! They're even making order forms for prank things that they invent. They must be genius' to make all that stuff. And they're brilliant beaters in Quidditch. Shame they aren't in Ravenclaw.'

'There's the poltergeist named Peeves, though. Now he is the one to really look out for.' Terry said with a shiver. 'He's the devil incarnate, I tell you. It's a surprise he hasn't killed one of us yet with all those pranks he plays. And unlike Fred and George's, they're always dangerous. Only the Blood Baron – Slytherin's resident ghost – that can control him.'

'Then there's Gryffindors "Golden Trio",' Zabini said with a sneer, causing Celestin to blink at the obvious dislike in his voice. 'That's Ron Weasley – The Weasley twin's younger brother – Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. They're the ones who mostly cause the hatred of the Slytherins. Weasley especially. He acts almost as bad as Malfoy, but without the money.

'The two of them, Malfoy and Weasley,' added Daphne, 'hated each other since they first met on the train in first year. The whole train heard about it. It's best to stay out of their way, really. If you show interest in being friends with Slytherins, Weasley'll never leave you alone. Most likely say you're dark. But Malfoy'll do exactly the same if you show any sympathy to Muggleborns. Its best to just stay away from them.' She advised.

Celestin nodded. He needed to keep his options open. If he got in the middle of this "House war", he would never be able to find the information that might prove critical against the dark forces. 'I'll bare that in mind,' he said with a smile.

'Hermione Granger's not all that bad, though, 'Terry added. 'She's a girl in Gryffindor, but she should have been in Ravenclaw. I mean it, she even beats the most intelligent of Ravenclaws most of the time, but she does tend to be a bit of a know-it-all is sometimes. She's usually the one to get Weasley and his friends out of trouble they were stupid enough to get into in the first place. If it weren't for her, they probably would have got thrown out of the school years ago.'

Celestin blinked. Two of those names rung a bell. 'I think I might have seen two of them before,' he said thoughtfully. 'That Ron character and this Hermione. Ron has red hair, right, with a big-ish family, same hair colour? Then Hermione…has bushy hair, slightly over large front teeth by any chance?'

The others looked a bit surprised. 'You've met them?' asked Zabini. 'When?'

'During the world cup,' Celestin said. 'They were in the woods after all those death-eaters attacked. We stumbled into each other.'

'What, together?' asked Terry.

'Ooooh, Weasley and Granger, sitting in a tree,' sang Anthony. 'K-I-S-S-I-N-G –'

'Shut up, Goldstein!' growled Daphne, whacking him over the head with Celestin's book that had lain forgotten on the seat until now. Celestin laughed. Daphne glanced out of the window as the sky outside darkened, making the thick-looking storm clouds ahead a strange mix of angry crimson and turbulent grey, the mountains darkened into shadowy forms along the horizon, but were made a pitch black as lightning flashed. Celestin counted slowly until thunder rolled. It was only a few miles away. 'Oh, it looks like we'll be there soon,' she said, thoughtfully. 'We need to get changed into our uniforms.'

'You do that then,' Anthony beamed. 'We're all set!'

Daphne just rolled her eyes as she rummaged through her things and pulled out her jet-black robes that bore the Slytherin serpent in sliver and green. 'Just behave yourselves while I'm gone.'

'Why, where are you going?' Anthony asked innocently, though his eyes sparkled.

Daphne's eyes flashed and she snatched a handful of Anthony's hair and pulled, causing him to cry out in pain. 'To get changed, you perverted asshole!'

'Owwww! All right! All right! I'm sorry, Oh great and wonderful Daphne! Just please let go!' Wailed Anthony as he squirmed.

The Slytherin girl huffed and marched from the room, leaving Anthony massaging at his scalp. 'That girl's gonna give me a bald patch one of these days,' he wined, while Terry, Celestin and Zabini attempted to smother their laughter.

'Well, um, you'd better…you know…get changed,' Terry managed to say at last.

Zabini and Celestin pulled out their own robes – Zabini's also bearing the Slytherin snake. Celestin's however, were still a plain black, as he had yet to be sorted into a house. However, just as Celestin pulled off his T-shirt, he heard a loud gasp from behind. Surprised, Celestin glanced over his shoulder, arms still tangled in his top, to see the other three boys staring at him, their eyes wide. Celestin frowned. 'What?' he asked, irritably.

Terry was the first to recover his voice, his face a little pale. 'How…those scars…'

Celestin glanced down as much as he could and winced slightly. He should have known. His back was littered in scars from his training and his assassinations where he was less experienced and got hurt. The cut from the Secare curse was still a sore-looking red across his arm. He found a tiny blush making his way to his face at the stares. Annoyed, he pushed the embarrassment away and began to pull on his robes. 'Its nothing to be concerned about,' he said calmly, his face emotionless. 'Its just what you get for living in the rough-areas of the muggle world. It's nothing to get all excited over.'

'Those look…like they hurt…' Terry whispered, nodding towards the larger of his scars.

Celestin paused a moment. Quietly, he said. 'It happened a long time ago,' He pulled his robes down over him self, covering up the scars completely before he turned towards them, his eyes dark. 'I was…careless. I don't like talking about it.' He pushed away the swirling dark emotions and grinned at them. 'It's way too embarrassing!'

The tension lifted and Anthony returned the grin. 'What, did you fall off your broomstick into a rose bush?'

The boys snickered and Celestin relaxed. No, he didn't want to get them mixed up in the crap he went through. Besides, He was a wanted man after all…at least; "the death-eater assassin" was, anyway. It wasn't long before the door slid open, announcing Daphne's return. Celestin grinned, throwing himself down on one of the seats. 'So, how long until we reach the school, anyway? I don't know about anyone else, but I am sick to death of this train.'

Celestin had barely even got the words out of his mouth when the train began to slow down and a voice echoed down the train - 'We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.'

The raven-haired boy let out a long low whistle. 'Well, that was good timing,' he said to no one in particular.

It wasn't long before the train came to a complete stop and the students began to make their way through the corridors and out onto the cool platform of Hogsmeade station. Some of the students jumped as thunder rolled loudly, rain slatted down hard in the strong winds. Celestin sighed as he pulled up the hood of his cloak and resided himself to getting wet.

'Hey, are you coming with us, or do you have to go with Hagrid and the first years?' asked Daphne as she pulled up her cloak around her.

'Er…' Celestin paused. Now he thought about it, he didn't actually know. In all the convocations he had with Albus, the way he was to be transported from the train to Hogwarts had never come up. Next time he saw the guy, he was going to have to give Albus a serious talking to, he vowed silently. 'Now that you mention it, I have no idea.'

'Maybe you should ask Hagrid,' Terry suggested. 'Come on,' and grabbed his arm and began dragging Celestin down the platform towards a deep voice crying, 'Firs' years, Firs' years, over here!' Moments later, he found himself pushed in front of the large man that Celestin remembered from his last visit to Hogwarts – the man who had been quite protective about Headmaster Dumbledore, if he recalled.

'Yo, Hagrid!' Anthony yelled over the wind and the bearded giant of a man paused in his yelling and raised his lantern to look down at them in surprise.

'Oh, If it isn' Mr Goldstein,' the man said after a moment of squinting through the rain at Anthony's face. 'Yer gonna be late fer the carriages if yer don' hurry up.'

'Yeah, well be there in a minute, but We wanted to know where Harry's got to go. Does he need to come with the first years, or with us?'

'Harry?' Hagrid asked, confused, as if trying to think of something. Suddenly, his eyes landed on Celestin and they widened. Celestin hesitated. How much had Albus told the man about him? That question was answered when Celestin found himself scooped up into a bear-like Hug. 'Harry! It's been so long! Yer were only a little tyke last time I saw yer! Why din' yer tell me yer were Harry when I saw yer here?'

'Habit…but Hagrid…can't breath!' Celestin wheezed as he attempted to breathe around crushing ribs.

'Oops,' Hagrid lowered Celestin to the ground again as Celestin rubbed his bruised chest. He glanced around to see the first years looking scared stiff, while Anthony, Terry, Zabini and Daphne looked shocked at the reaction. Hagrid sniffed loudly and opened his mouth to say something. However, Celestin beat him too it.

'Listen, Hagrid, I'm sorry I told you that other name, but I've been using that name more over the years than Harry, so… Anyway I promise, I'll tell you all about it later. But it is very wet out here and, I don't know about you, but I'm sure the first years are freezing.' He nodded at them where the tiny eleven-year-olds shivered violently under their cloaks. 'You don't mind, do you?'

'Nah, s'my fault. Yer come over ter my house some time an' ave a cup o' tea.' Hagrid said apologetically.

'So…er…does he go with you?' asked Daphne breathlessly, still eyeing Hagrid nervously, as if he was going to grab hold of Celestin again.

'Yeah. Professor Dumbledore tol' me ter take yer up with the firs' years.' Hagrid said happily, before he realised a group of first years wandering off the train looked completely confused. 'Oh, yeah – Firs' years, this way!'

Celestin, however, was not so enthusiastic about the prospect of travelling via water in such a storm. He grimaced. 'Oh joy…going up by boat. Don't you laugh!' he growled at Anthony, who was choking back a chuckle. As soon as he said that, Anthony collapsed into a loud, violent laugh. 'If this,' he jabbed a thumb up at the still stormy sky, which flashed with loud thunder as if to emphasise the point as the rain lashed down even harder, 'carries on, we'll all drown.'

'Well,' snickered Anthony, 'at least you'll get lots of swimming practice. Have you brought a float?'

Celestin smiled sweetly at him as he pulled out his wand. A few red-gold sparks shooting from the tip. 'Run…now…before I curse you.'

'Eep! Point taken!' Anthony yelped, backing off at the gleam in Celestin's eye.

Celestin patted him on the head. 'Good boy.'

Daphne gave Celestin a respectful look. 'One of these days, you are going to show me how you did that so easily.'

'Fruits of a misspent youth in downtown London, New York, you name it – oh, and a few very good teachers,' he added thoughtfully, as his thoughts drifted over to Marius and his associates. 'Anyway, See you at the great hall,' he grimaced as thunder boomed deafeningly overhead. '…If we don't drown first!'

'Hey, were gonna get left behind if you don't hurry,' Terry yelled over the rain, pointing towards the back of a line of carriages that looked just about ready to pull off.

'See you!' the four yelled as they dashed off towards the hazy form of the carriages to take the last empty one at the back of the line. Moments latter, the lurched as they started to move, before the curtain of rain blocked them from sight. Celestin sighed and pulled his cloak more tightly around him.

It wasn't long until Hagrid had finally rounded up the last few first years, including a very hyperactive boy who Celestin suspected was on a sugar high from too much sweets. 'Alright, everyone, follow me!' bellowed Hagrid over the gale-force winds. 'Stay together!'

Stumbling and sliding, the first years slowly made their way, heads down against the wind, down the path towards the lake. They barely took the effort to glance up when Hagrid shouted that they would get their first glance at the castle. Celestin, however, who was close to the back, lifted his eyes up to glance over at the castle in the distance. It was as if it was hidden behind a thin waterfall. The windows shimmered, reflected by the rain, fragmenting the light. The shape of the castle looked formidable as a flash of lightning burst overhead, silhouetting the building. To Celestin, it reminded him of old films about Dracular. _I wonder what Marius would say to that,_ he mused.

The narrow path they had been following opened up to reveal the edges of the great lake, which was lapping hard against the shore. Several small boats bobbed dangerously in the shallows. Celestin gave them a very doubting look. He seriously hoped the boats had been well charmed, otherwise the amount of new students would likely drop very dramatically.

'No more than four in a boat!' Hagrid yelled.

Celestin took one boat, soon followed by two very green-faced girls and that hyperactive boy he had seen back at the train-station. It wasn't long before the boats began to scoot over the water, rocking dangerously. Some sort of bucket had been charmed to throw water over the edge of the boat to prevent it from sinking under the weight of the rain trying desperately to fill it. The rough water rocked the boat so much that the two girls looked just about ready to throw up. Celestin, who had placed himself as far across the other side of the boat so the girls wouldn't throw up on him, was feeling a little queasy himself. Not that he usually got seasick. But when you had one hyperactive boy rushing from one side of the boat to the other in excitement, almost capsizing it because it was rocking so much, anyone would get a little alarmed.

After a while, Celestin had had enough. 'Your going to make us all fall overboard if you keep that up,' he growled. 'Or yourself.'

The boy turned quickly, 'I wont fall overboard-!' but he didn't finish, as the quick turn made him slip on the wooden floor and he yelled in horror as he fell backwards into the rough water. The two girls screamed.

'Good Merlin…' He muttered under his breath before he threw his cloak to the floor and dived in after the boy. The boy was squealing in alarm as Celestin battled the waves. He treaded water as he grabbed the boy, yanking him up from the waves by his collar, almost getting punched in the face as he struggled. 'You really are a pain, aren't you?' He sighed, as he realised the boy was fine. 'Hang on…' He started to tow the boy back to the boat and gripped hold of the side before it bobbed passed them. With a little difficulty, he started to push the boy back in the boat, though that was difficult, seeing as there was no ground to push up from. However, he managed it and tossed the boy in, before pulling himself in. For a moment, he just sat trying to regulate his breathing.

'That…was so…cool!' Squealed the boy in excitement. Celestin glowed at him darkly, before snatching up his discarded cloak and throwing it in the boy's face.

'Yeah yeah,' Celestin grumbled, 'just put that on, or you'll catch cold. Who are you, anyway?'

'Denis Creevey!' piped the boy.

'Okay Denis, do me a favour and keep the hell still!'

Denis flinched and Celestin sat back, trying to squeeze the excess water from his hair, muttering a few choice cusses under his breath. It wasn't long before the boats finally reached shore and the children all but bolted onto dry land. Celestin was honestly surprised they weren't falling to their knees and kissing the ground, like in cartoons. Hagrid spotted Denis huddled up in Celestin's cloak and said assassin looking particle bedraggled as they stepped off and hurried over.

'What happened, Harry?' he said, sounding concerned.

'Denis fell overboard,' Celestin said calmly. 'He's fine. Make sure you give the cloak back later, 'Kay?' he added to Denis, who brightened at the fact Celestin didn't seem angry with him anymore. Celestin rolled his eyes, not feeling up to saying anything.

'Well, if yer sure…' Hagrid said, doubtfully, before he took charge once more and began to lead them up the path. Shivering slightly, Celestin rubbed his arms as he followed the large man up towards the castle. The door, thankfully, was open and they bolted inside, dripping and shivering.

'Remind me to bring an umbrella next time,' Celestin mumbled miserably as he squeezed the excess water from his ponytail, before whipping out his wand and muttering a few words. Instantly, if felt as though the water was sucked away, leaving him feel dry and a hell of a lot more happy. Other bedraggled students followed behind, complaining about how wet they were. Celestin smiled slightly, glad Marius had managed to teach him that household charm at least.

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he glanced round to the stairs to see a woman walking towards them. She had jet-black hair tied back into a tight bun at the back of her head and wore square glasses on her stern face. He could immediately tell that this woman was one who could hold her own and was definitely not someone to cross.

'Alright then, First-years, If you would follow me,' she said sharply. Everyone jumped to attention and followed the teacher passed the large doors that lead to the great hall – Celestin could hear voices and movement from the other side – into a small room at the side. The first-years crowded in, keeping huddled together nervously. The teacher turned towards them, looking them over through her square glasses.

'Welcome to Hogwarts,' she said. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is an important ceremony because, while you are here, your houses will be your family. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.' She went on to explain what the four houses were and a point system which would go towards getting the house cup at the end of the year.

'The sorting will take place in front of the rest of the school in a few minutes time, so I suggest you smarten yourselves up as much as you can until then.' The first years immediately jumped to it, murmuring nervously among themselves.

The professor turned to Celestin for a moment, her eyes resting on his, before moving to his forehead, where his scar was plain to see now the bandanna was off and his hair was parted slightly from the use of his drying charm. 'You must be our new fourth year,' she said 'Well, If you would stay here for a moment, as you will need to be sorted. You'll be called through separately.'

Celestin nodded in acknowledgement. 'Yes, Professor.'

Turning to the first years, the professor nodded and said 'The sorting is about to begin. Form a line and wait for me outside the great hall.'

Once the first years skittishly followed the professor's instructions, she turned back towards Celestin. 'Well, Mr Potter,' she said at last. 'The Headmaster has informed me that you would be coming. He also said something about lessons in becoming an animagus. Is that correct?'

He blinked, surprised, before his eyes widened in dawning comprehension. 'You must be the Professor McGonagall that the Headmaster told me about. In that case, yes, that's true.' He glanced at her. 'How much did the Headmaster tell you?'

'Most of what you asked for,' she said, calmly. 'You see, I am a member of the order. I will also be giving you lessons in becoming an animagus. However, you cannot tell anyone else. God only knows what people would say if they found out. If anyone asks, you will be having independent learning sessions to catch up on the work in the previous three years. Is that clear?'

'Crystal, Professor. Thank you for taking me on.'

McGonagall smiled slightly, her face becoming a little less stern. 'As long as it is understood, I think we will get on well. Now, Mr Potter, if you come with me, then we can get you sorted into your house.'

Celestin followed McGonagall out of the tiny room and round to the large oak doors of the great hall that rose high up to the ceiling that you couldn't quite make out. There, the first-years stood petrified, shaking from cold and nerves. Some looked positively sick. The only one who didn't seem effected was the boy who fell into the lake and was still draped in Celestin's lest-than-dry cloak – Denis Creevey.

'Mr Potter, if you will wait here until your name is called, then go to the front, where you will be sorted. First-years follow me.'

The doors opened and McGonagall lead the first-years inside. Celestin sighted and stuffed his hands into his robe pockets as he leant back against the doorframe and closed his eyes to listen to the sorting as the chatting from inside fell silent. For a moment, Celestin couldn't hear anything. However, the silence was broken when a slightly inhuman voice broke into song:

'A thousand years or more,

When I was newly sewn,

There lived four wizards of renown,

Whose names are still well known:

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,

Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,

Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,

Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,

They hatched a daring plan,

To educate young sorcerers,

Thus Hogwarts School began.

Now each of these four founders

Formed their own house, for each

Did value different virtues

In the ones they had to teach.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were

Prized far beyond the rest;

For Ravenclaw, the cleverest

Would always be the best;

For Hufflepuff, hard workers were

Most worthy of admission;

And power-hungry Slytherin

Loved those of great ambition.

While still alive they did divide

Their favourites from the throng,

Yet how to pick the worthy ones

When they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,

He whipped me from his head

The founders put some brains in me

So I could choose instead!

Now slip me snug about your ears,

I've never yet been wrong,

I'll have a look inside your mind

And tell you where you belong!'

Celestin opened his eyes with a slight sigh as applauding could be heard from within the hall. So, this must be the sorting hat he had heard so much about from Marius: The hat that would decide the fate of so many of those young children, and would now help to decide his own. However, the whole thing made him feel slightly uneasy. This hat would need to look into his mind to find out which would be the "best house" for him. Who knew what it would find if it saw all the things that he had done…if it knew what he really was. For all he knew, it could proclaim him a murderer right in the hall. So much for any type of cover then. However, there was nothing he could do about that now except perhaps concealing some of that information. It would all be up to fate now.

To bad fate has never liked me…shit… He ran his fingers through his hair with an ironic smile. So far this mission isn't holing me in way of confidence. 

Inside the hall, Celestin could now hear as the voice of McGonagall called out the names of different first-years, then, after a varying moment of silence, the hats voice calling out one of the four houses and there would be a round of applauds. Finally, after 'Whitby, Kevin!' ('Hufflepuff!') The hall fell silent once more. There was a movement, which sounded like a chair being drawn back, before the voice of Albus could be heard through the door.

'Congratulations to all first years and welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we start with our wonderful banquet, we also have a new student who will be joining our fourth years this year.'

Celestin found himself chuckling at the eruption of hissing whispers that could be heard through the door. A few things could be caught:

'A new fourth year? No way!'

'Do you think it's an exchange student?'

'Nothing like this has happened before! It never mentioned anything like it in "Hogwarts: a History"!'

'Who do you think it is?'

He couldn't wait to see their faces when they found out who the new student was.

Finally, the hissing whispers died down and Albus started speaking once more. 'Instead of making you wait – as I'm sure you are all impatient to meet him – We will now need to sort him into his house as well.'

Celestin smiled and pushed himself off the wall. 'Guess that's my cue!' and with that he pushed the door open, just as McGonagall announced his name in front of the school.

'Potter, Harry!'

'No Way!' Someone exploded.

'Its true! He really IS alive!'

'Oh My God!'

The moment Celestin opened the door, he was bombarded with exclamations that made his eardrums feel just about ready to burst and instantly he found thousands of eyes fixing him with gaping stares. Hissed whispers that were louder than necessary broke across the hall like bursts of flame as he walked passed, but he ignored them as he crossed the hall towards the front where the teachers were all sat around a long table. Well, all until a boy jumped up from the red and gold table and pointed at him in shock.

'I-its you!' He blurted out.

Celestin glanced across at the boy, took in his red hair, freckles and rough clothing, remembering how he had haphazardly stumbled into the clearing.

'Ron, you're making a scene! Sit down!' growled another red head – this time a girl who pulled Ron down into his seat. Celestin smiled at that. The girl blushed a little. Celestin scanned the crowds of heads until he spotted Anthony and Terry, the former giving him the thumbs up, while the latter nodded and smiled in greeting. Over the opposite side of the hall, Daphne waved and Zabini sniggered at what had happened over at the Gryffindor table, where Ron looked like he was sizzling under a dark storm-cloud. Celestin rolled his eyes back playfully at the two Slytherins before continuing up the hall.

McGonagall stood by a small, three-legged stool, holding a very scruffy hat. Celestin's eyes met Albus' and watched as the headmaster gave him a small smile and the smallest of nods, which Celestin returned before he sat down on the stool and the hat was placed on his head. He was quite surprised when it fell down over his eyes, blocking out all sight and sound. Immediately, Celestin was on guard.

'_My, my, you are certainly a jumpy one.' _A voice whispered in his ear, causing Celestin to stiffen and throw up his Occlumency shields. _'Hey, you're making my job a little difficult. I can't sort you if you don't let me take a look!'_

Celestin cursed his jumpiness and lowered his shields slightly_. 'Sorry.'_

'_Quite all right. Harry Potter, hmm? I've been expecting you for a few years now.'_

'_Yeah, sorry about that. I've been…a little busy.' _He admitted.

'_Yes, yes. Well, shall we get started then? Let's see…quite the difficult one, aren't you? You already seem to know a lot of spells. Not all of them in the curriculum, either. Lots of talent here that's for sure. Not a bad mind, either– I say, what do we have here?'_

Celestin immediately threw up his shields again, pushing the hat from his mind. _'Stay out of there!'_ he snapped. _'Those things are personal and have nothing to do with this.'_

'_I see…forgive me. However, I still need to finish the sorting.'_

'_Yes,' _he thought, lowering his shield again_. 'Just stay out of there. It doesn't concern you.'_

'_I understand. Well, back to sorting - You're resourceful, brave, loyal, but you're not the type for Hufflepuff. The house that seems to fit you best would be Slytherin, but from what I did get to see, your mission wouldn't be too good in there. Oh, don't be so shocked.' _It added as Celestin stiffened. _'Dumbledore informed me that you would be coming this year because of events concerning the tournament. People are bias against the Slytherins, unfortunately, and you need a more neutral party, so that rules out Gryffindor too, though I'd say you're too cunning for that house anyway. So the best choice for you in all of that would have to be RAVENCLAW!'_

The last part was called out to the entire school and Celestin could hear cheering coming from the Ravenclaw table. He also caught Anthony's voice yelling 'We got Potter! Ha h-ha!'

Which was soon accompanied by Terry's voice as he sighed. 'Tony, you're making a scene.'

Celestin smiled. _'Thank you.' _He told the hat, before taking the hat off and passing it to McGonagall again, heading towards the Ravenclaw table, where Anthony was now making rude signs over to Zabini and Daphne. 'Ha! You owe me three Galleons, Zabini!'

Terry put his head in his hands. 'I'm pretending I don't know you…'

**TBC**

**Chosha's notes**

Good lord, that was a long chapter! So, how was it? As promised, the sorting! Now, I'm going to justify myself now, before you lot who voted Slytherin try to kill me. Here is the list of why I did what I did:

Ravenclaw has, I don't think, ever been used as a house for an AU Harry. I'll admit I saw one that goes into Hufflepuff (yeah, I mean it! I'm not joking!), but that was in one where Harry was some sort of Samurai, I believe. Anyway, there is a lot to offer, including new descriptions of the Ravenclaw tower and so one and so forth

Slytherin was the obvious place and I like to be unpredictable. (I know…that's not an excuse…)

Harry needs to be able to get info from all sides. If I put him into Slytherin, no bugger in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw (minus Terry and Anthony, of course) would tell him anything. So, as Ravenclaw, who tend to stay out of the Gryffindor-Slytherin wars, was a good choice for that.

Harry'll be spending loads of time with Zabini and Daphne anyway, so it amounts to the same thing.

This way I can have both Malfoy and Ron trying stupid things and the whole plot should be a little more interesting, ne? Not telling you what they do yet though.

Anyway, I hope this justifies it all. Anyway, if the song looks familiar, then you'd be right. This is the song from book four (which was a pain to type out, I tell you.) I'm not a songwriter. Never have been, never claimed to have been. Never will be. The closest thing to a song I've done is my Rurouni Kenshin poetry fiction, Behind Those Violet Eyes. Which means that, since there was one ready made for year four, and because I'm lazy, you got that one. You don't like it? Tough luck – unless, of course, you have one you would have liked me to use. If you do, please review it to me, or Email it to me. Actually, Do that anyway, cause I want to know what you wonderful people think.

(No, I'm not just saying that because I think that by flattering you I won't get killed… really… I mean it… honest!)

Next time on Celestin

Celestin settles into his new house, making new friends, new enemies, and a few guesses on what Voldemort's plans might be for the tournament. Just who is this new teacher? Next episode: House of the Eagle.

Until then, Ja ne!

Chosha Kurenai xXx 


	8. House of the Eagle

Chosha's Notes 

_Heya everyone and welcome back to Celestin. I really want to thank you for your reviews for the last chapters. Most of you thought that I did the right thing in which house I put Celestin-Harry into – that he would have done well in Slytherin, but for his mission Ravenclaw was best. I'll admit I was wrong about the comment I said at the end of last chapter in my notes however. What I meant was that I haven't seen any Harry-in-Ravenclaw fictions. But, If any of you can think of any I should read, please tell me. Thank you to those who already have._

_You will probably notice that some – but definitely not all – the dialogue comes from HPatGoF, chapter 12. Although this chapter might seem that I'm going to be following the book like a good girl from now on, just know that some very large twists will be coming very soon to the story line._

_But anyway, enough from me, I'm sure you're all impatient to get on with reading the new chapter, so I give you (…dramatic music…) Chapter Eight! (Round of applause!) _

_Last time on Celestin:_

_Celestin finally made it to Hogwarts, but after an interesting arrival via the lake in which he saved one Denis Creevey; Celestin made his first big appearance as Harry Potter. Though the sorting was hard (as Celestin is still hiding his assassin identity), the hat manages to discover something of Celestin's mission and sorts him into Ravenclaw house…_

**Chapter Eight**

**House of the Eagle**

Celestin made his way over to the Ravenclaw table as the thousands of students clapped, though he noticed that the clapping went on significantly longer than the other clapping he had heard while he was waiting to be sorted. As he reached the table, he was greeted by Anthony, who was grinning from ear to ear as he slung his arm over Celestin's shoulders and began to lead him towards the table.

'Man, I'm so glad you made it into Ravenclaw!' he said with barely concealed excitement. 'You know, if you'd gone into Slytherin or something, Zabini would never have let me live it down!'

'You made a bet on which house I'd get in?' Celestin asked in amusement as he sat down between Anthony and Terry. The latter groaned.

'Yes. That idiot,' he jutted a thumb over at the beaming Anthony, 'and Zabini were arguing all the way up to the castle about which house you would have gone in. I think you would have given them a heart attack if you had been sorted into Hufflepuff or Gryffindor.'

Celestin shrugged. 'I don't think I'd have done too well in those.' He said calmly, before glancing over towards the teacher's table, where Albus had once more held up his hand. Everyone followed Celestin lead, soon falling silent.

Albus beamed down at them, his blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon glasses. 'Well, I only have two words to say to you now,' he said, spreading his arms wide. 'Tuck in.'

Anthony cheered, snatching up his knife and fork as the golden plates suddenly filled with the greatest assortment of food that Celestin had ever laid eyes on in one sitting. It even rivalled the banquets that he had attended amongst some of the vampires that Marius had met. Smells and sights that made his stomach rumble and his mouth water assaulted his senses. Down the table, he heard some of the new first-years gasp. Celestin smiled a little as he reached out and began to pile his plate high with everything he wanted and started to eat. He had to admit that the house elves that had made it were even better than Lucy was when it came to food. Bede would have loved it there.

Celestin would have enjoyed it a hell of a lot more if it weren't for the fact that there was at least half the table staring at him. Celestin gazed round and slowly swallowed, before frowning. 'What?'

He immediately regretted it, as about four or five people began to speak at once, before a girl – perhaps a year older than him and of Oriental origin said quite loudly. 'All right enough. Leave him alone until later! I'm sure you can pester him after the feast.

'But Cho-!' a reddish haired girl wined. However, the girl – Cho? – cut her off.

'Come on, Marietta, he's only just got here. I'm sure he's tired.' She said quite rationally.

'Oh, all right…' the other girl grumbled. However, the other Ravenclaws were not to be deterred so easily and continued to argue with Cho. Celestin rubbed his head slightly, already feeling a headache coming on. He had forgotten what it was like, being around a large group of people his age. While he had been training, it was always with people who were older than him – usually much older when it came to the Vampires that Marius had introduced him to. To be honest, it was starting to irritate him.

'I didn't think I was so popular,' Celestin said sarcastically.

Anthony choked on whatever he had been eating and had to be hit across the back several times by Terry before he could say anything. Celestin looked at him with mild concern. 'You alright?'

The other boy looked at him strangely. 'What do you mean, "you didn't think you were this popular"? You defeated You-Know-Who, didn't you!'

Celestin gave a non-committal hum, before wincing slightly as the very loud argument that was still going on a little further down the table.

'But can't we-'

'No Padma!'

Celestin was really trying not to give into the temptation of cursing someone. 'Who is that, anyway?'

'Who, her?' asked Terry, looking around at Cho. 'She's one of the prefects – or at least, she became one this year. She's a year above us – plays Seeker in the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Actually, she's the only girl we've got on our team.'

It looked like Cho had finally managed to calm everyone down for the moment (thought Celestin was sure that she hadn't deterred them completely. They would probably try again tomorrow) and turned to Celestin apologetically. 'Sorry about that. I guess that it was just a shock meeting you and everything, especially since everyone thought you died thirteen years ago.' She stuck out a hand in a friendly manner. 'I'm Cho Chang.'

Celestin sized up the person who had helped to stop people from bothering him just yet, though he felt a little odd in doing so, since she was a woman, but still, even death eaters could be female. Not that he expected Cho of being one, but it still made him feel more comfortable—safer—to know everything he could about the people around him, just in case.

Cho Chang was a slim girl, about a head shorter than Celestin was with long dark hair and warm, almond shaped eyes that were welcoming. Celestin smiled and took the offered hand. 'Harry Potter.'

'I'm sure Anthony and Terry'll show you how everything is, but if you need any help, I'm one of the prefects now, so just ask, okay.'

'Thanks. You know, I was worried they'd be bugging me all through the feast.'

Cho laughed before turning to the girl she had referred to as Marietta, who gave her a slightly sour look – although Celestin got the feeling she was joking.

Now that Celestin didn't have everyone starring at him or trying to interrogate him, he glanced up at the teachers' table once more. Albus sat in the centre, staring up at the ceiling, his chin resting on steepled fingers. Wondering what was fascinating the headmaster so much, Celestin took a moment to glance up as well, just as what looked like lightning streaked across a turbulent sea of black and grey. Oh yes, now he remembered. He had read that the ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky outside. It definitely gave him a new appreciation for his now warm and dry state.

Looking up at the ceiling a moment longer, he went back to his inspection of the staff table. One of the teachers was the smallest man that Celestin had ever seen, looking somewhat like a shaved dwarf as he perched on a stack of cushions. In contrast, Hagrid was sitting precariously on the seat that looked a little too small for him, and looked extremely wet (much like the rest of the first years.) Celestin spared a moment of sympathy. Next sat a woman with flyaway hair, her hat askew, talking with another professor, whom he didn't yet know the name of. Between this teacher and McGonagall sat a man with greasy hair, a hook-like nose that reminded him of a bird of prey – like a vulture of some type – and dark eyes that seemed like cold endless tunnels. Those tunnels swerved in Celestin's direction and locked onto his eyes. If it was possible, they seemed to harden even more. He wondered just what he had done to gain that reaction when he felt a brush against his Occlumency shields. Celestin was immediately on guard, evicting the person from his mind before they could gain any information from him. The professor recoiled slightly, bringing a hand to his temple. Celestin gave him a warning glare.

Now he remembered who this person was. Marius had told him about one Severus Snape, who had once acted as a spy in Voldemort's ranks. Unfortunately, he also had something of a grudge on Celestin's father. And with Celestin looking much like his father – even more so if he hadn't grown out his hair – Celestin knew it was unlikely that Snape was going to like him much either. He snorted and went back to eating again. For now, that wasn't important.

It didn't seem long before most things were devoured and the remains melted away, leaving the plates as spotless as they were beforehand – and were immediately filled with pudding.

Anthony seemed to have some sort of reputation for being someone with a black hole for a stomach and immediately piled his bowl with a mix of puddings that Celestin was sure weren't meant to be served on one plate. Celestin watched with something close to fascination as Anthony devoured everything at lightning fast speed. Terry spotted the surprise on Celestin's face. 'I don't think I've ever seen someone eat more than their own body mass before.' Celestin breathed in amazement. Terry just sighed witheringly, obviously used to this behaviour from the other Ravenclaw boy.

'Don't mind him, Harry.' Terry said calmly, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice from his goblet. 'He always eats like that.'

'I just wonder where all the food he consumed went to,' Celestin mused aloud.

'Not his brain, that's for sure.' Terry grumbled.

'Hey!' Anthony cried out indignantly, his mouth full of goodness knows what, succeeding in spraying a few bits onto the unfortunate individual who was sitting across from him.

'Ugh! Anthony! Don't talk with your mouth full. Dimwit,' the dark-haired boy growled, snatching up a napkin to whip the nix of ice cream and treacle tart from his face. At least Anthony had the decency to blush.

'Oops. Sorry Michael.' Anthony apologised sheepishly after swallowing down the food in his mouth. Michael just snorted and went back to finishing eating, muttering under his breath about the boy's awful habits while Terry sighed and Celestin tried not to laugh.

Finally, the remains of the puddings also vanished, leaving them, once more, clean and sparkling. Albus stood once more and the buzz of chatter ceased almost at once, the hall so silent that the howling wind and drumming of rain could be heard loudly from outside. Albus, however, didn't seem to notice the storm outside and beamed over at everyone.

'So! Now that you have all been fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

'Mr Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects this year has been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list compromises some 437 items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr Filches office, if anyone would like to check it.'

Somehow, from the way Albus' mouth twitched slightly, he knew as well as Celestin did that a grand total of no one would do that. Either way, he continued. 'As ever, I would like to remind you that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students-' here, Albus' eyes flickered over to the group of red-heads, a sandy haired boy and a black boy on the Gryffindor table. Obviously, he wasn't the only one to notice, as from across the room, Daphne and Zabini looked as if they were trying to hold back a laugh. Albus continued. '-As is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

'It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year.'

'WHAT!'

Celestin winced as almost everyone in the room screamed either denials or shock, making his sensitive ears throb. He wouldn't have been surprised if his eardrums had burst. Cho, Michael, Anthony and a few others looked just about ready to jump out of their seats in shock. He noticed Daphne being restrained by Zabini. Some people, such as two of the redheads in Gryffindor that looked like mirror images of each other were so shocked that they could only mouth something, unable to form the words.

Dumbledore continued over the noise and everyone reluctantly calmed again. 'This is due to an event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts –'

BANG!

A roll of thunder was almost drowned out by the door as they were thrown open, crashing into the walls. There in the doorway was a silhouetted figure leaning against a long staff and shrouded in a thick jet-black travel cloak that dripped on the ground.

Everyone spun around in their seats to stare at the figure, frozen, but Celestin was the only one to react. He twitched his hand, the wand sliding out of his wrist-holster and into his hands, ready as he spun in his seat, so he could move at a moment's notice, pointing his wand at the man. And all in a few seconds before his mind had even processed the fact that this man could be dangerous. The movement, however, seemed to have attracted the man's attention. The man threw back his hood, shaking out grizzled hair as he strode forwards, an odd clucking noise made every other step until he reached Celestin, who didn't move, his wand still trained on the man and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

There was another flash of lightning from above, momentarily illuminating the stranger's face. Everyone gasped, Celestin heard someone stifle a scream. Even Celestin had to school his face blank to cover a wince. It was as if he was looking at a carving of a man, made by someone clumsy and unskilled, where the sculptor had made terrible mistakes. Every inch of his skin was gnarled and scarred, some thick and ropy, others thin and shimmered white in the light. His mouth looked like a grim line, his nose looked as if someone had yanked part of it away in what Celestin could only guess was during an event that could only have caused one hell of a lot of pain. But even though his face was more than a little disconcerting, his eyes were practically terrifying. One was human, small, dark and beady, holding a wary look that Celestin instantly recognised to be akin to the one that was always present in his own eyes. The other, however, was large, easily twice the size of its counterpart and round as a coin, almost glowing an electric blue that sent shivers down your spine. It moved constantly in every which way possible and then some not possible, spinning completely in the opposite direction, so only the whites could be seen – And all independently of the normal eye. As the stranger reached him, both eyes fixed on Celestin's, then flickered to the wand in his hand. He reached for it, but pulled back in surprise when Celestin's other hand shot out, grasping hold of the man's sleeves and moved the wand so it now pointed directly at the man's heart. Everyone gasped once more.

However, far from being angered by Celestin's actions, the gash of a mouth curved into a grim smile that made his face look even more twisted than before. It made the gargoyle that protected Albus' office look pretty. A deep, guttural chuckle broke from the stranger's throat.

'Very good, boy!' the man's voice was horse sounding and rough as stone, but clearly impressed. It seemed almost to echo through the grave-silent hall. His eyes fixed unmoving on Celestin's face. 'Well done. I'm impressed, Potter. You were the only one to react to what could have been a danger.' Celestin gave a slight start at the use of his other name, releasing his hold on the man's sleeve. The man noticed and nodded. 'Yeah, I know who you are, laddie - Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. I look forward to our next meeting.'

The man gave a bark of a laugh and moved away from him, making his way up towards the staff table. Celestin let out the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding, letting his wand arm fall to his side, though he didn't release his hold on it. Beside him, he heard Anthony and Terry sigh in relief as well.

Terry tentatively touched Celestin's shoulder as he forced himself to relax. 'Merlin, Harry. That was so fast…but…why? Nothings going to happen with Dumbledore here…'

'You'd be surprised,' Celestin whispered in response as his eyes followed the stranger, who had now reached the staff table and was now shaking Albus' hand with his own gnarled one, while Albus questioned him in an undertone, the stranger responding in kind, unsmiling. 'I've seen too many people die not to be careful.'

He felt Terry flinch hard at that, but ignored it. He would never truly know just how true the statement was anyway. He would never know he meant more than just his parent's deaths. It was better that he didn't know more than that. And for now, Celestin had a job to do.

The stranger had now sat in the only seat that had been vacant and, after sniffing a plate of sausages, pulled a knife and fork out of his cloak and began to eat, his vivid blue eye still restlessly roaming the students. Albus now turned to face the stony silence of the hall.

'May I introduce our new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher,' Albus said brightly, contradicting the stillness that belonged in a morgue around him. 'Professor Moody.'

There were very few who applauded except for Albus and Hagrid, any others who did clap, did so fleetingly, and fell silent soon after. Everyone else was too transfixed by the man's appearance that they couldn't keep their eyes of him. It looked like all they were capable of doing just then. If Moody noticed his icy welcome, he didn't show it as he pulled a hip flask from somewhere within the folds of his cloak and took a swig from it, ignoring the pumpkin juice on the table as if it were a contagious disease.

'Moody?' Celestin said absently. 'As in the Auror?'

'Mad-eye Moody,' Anthony whispered, half awed, half disturbed. 'Merlin…'

More like damn, Celestin thought grimly. Alastor Moody was once one of the best Aurors out there until he retired and was more paranoid than both Celestin and Marius on a bad day. And with Celestin himself on the Aurors' hit list along with some of the death-eaters they never caught, Celestin really didn't want to be on the receiving end of that paranoia. He would have to be careful…

"Now then, as I was starting to say, " Albus continued, "I am very happy to announce something that has not happened in the Wizarding World in over a century. It is my great pleasure to inform you all that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

A redhead from the Gryffindor table jumped up. "You're JOKING!" he exclaimed loudly.

The tension that filled the hall with Monody's arrival suddenly broke. Almost everyone burst into a fit of laughter and Albus himself chuckled at the exclamation in appreciation. Celestin found his lips twitch as he fought a grin.

'I am not joking, Mr. Weasley, although now that you mention it, I did hear a good one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar –'

'Ahem!' McGonagall cleared her throat loudly in a not so subtle hint as to get on with it.

At least Albus had the decency to look embarrassed.

'Er – but maybe this is not the time…no…' he coughed in embarrassment, before straightening and continued. 'Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament… well, some of you will not know what this Tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely.'

Celestin bit back a snort of laughter. If Marius had heard something like that, he would have had a hissy fit. If his attention had ever wandered when he was younger, even if he had heard it before, he would lightly slap him on the back of the head. Or, at least, lightly for a vampire, anyway. So that usually meant that Celestin would suddenly find his face planted in the table.

'The Triwizard Tournament was first established between the three largest schools of wizardry in Europe – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang – about 700 years ago. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in the three magical tasks placed before them. Every five years one of the three schools would take its turn in hosting the competition. It was considered an excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued.'

Terry choked next to him. 'Death toll!' he whispered in alarm.

However, he was one of few that seemed fazed by that fact. Anthony was staring but at Albus in excitement, rubbing his hands together. Over on the Slytherin table, Celestin saw Daphne and Zabini whispering animatedly at each other. All through the hall Celestin could hear the hissed whispers of excitement. Celestin probably would have been more interested than he was if he wasn't feeling suspicious about the whole thing anyway. Still, he was mildly interested in what the tasks would be.

'There have been a number of attempts over the years to start it up again, with no luck. However that changed, due to the hard work and efforts by the departments of International Magical Co-operation and Magical Games and Sports. All the wizards and witches involve in the planning has worked very hard to ensure the champions will not be in any kind of mortal danger. Hogwarts itself has made a few precautions in order to ensure the safety of the participants,' here, Albus glanced over at Celestin, who nodded ever so slightly. 'The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short listed contenders in late October and the selection of champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decided which students is worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons in prize money.'

Anthony's face lit up in rapturous joy. 'I'm going for it!'

'Don't be stupid, 'Tony,' Terry muttered. 'You'd probably get yourself killed.'

'Hey!'

'Shush,' Celestin broke in before they could begin an argument, as Albus had started talking once more.

'Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts,' Albus continued. The Hall immediately fell silent. 'The heads of all three schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this time around. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This -' Albus had to raise his voice now as no few people made sounds of protest that made Celestin's ears hurt. Anthony swore loudly. ' Is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it s highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts Champion.' His eyes twinkled as they looked over at the Weasley twin's mutinous faces and Ron's furious expression. 'I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are underage.'

'Nuts,' Anthony muttered. Celestin held back a snort.

'The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October, and remaining with us for the greater part of the year. I know that you will extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are here, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now that it is late and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop, chop!' Albus beamed.

Everyone got to their feet in a symphony of scrapings and banging as they made their way towards the large doors. Celestin gave one last glance towards the staff table, where Albus was now talking softly to Moody. His eye also caught Snape as he was looking in Celestin's direction with a slight frown. Noticing Celestin's eyes, his face turned icy once more. Celestin just met his eyes a moment longer, before he turned and followed Anthony and Terry out of the doors once more.

'Come on, Harry. Ravenclaw tower is this way,' Terry said as they joined the troop of Ravenclaws that were heading towards the strange staircase that seemed to have a life of their own. Celestin watched as one of the stairs began to change its direction on its own accord. 'Oh yeah, you better keep an eye on those,' he added, seeing where Celestin was looking. 'They like to change.'

'Thanks for the warning,' Celestin said appreciatively as they followed the Ravenclaws up the stairs.

'I still can't believe Dumbledore put an age restriction on that thing,' Anthony muttered as they walled. 'I know that I could do it if I tried.'

'Are you still harping on about that?' Terry grumbled. 'You did get the part where he said that people have died in this thing.'

'Yeah, so?' Anthony said brightly, causing Celestin to miss a step as he tried not to smack his head on the banisters with a groan. Terry didn't even try to hold it back as he smacked a hand to his forehead.

They finally reached a large painting of a man sitting on a rocking chair by a blazing fire that was situated somewhere close to a room that looked like a library (figures, Celestin thought). The oldish looking man was sucking on a pipe and there was a book resting in his hands. He looked up at them through his oval glasses and, realising there were people approaching, raised his head to look at them properly, taking the pipe from his mouth. 'Password?'

'Enlightenment,' said Cho, who was a little in front of them.

'Same to you, my dear,' the man said, before the painting swung forwards.

Celestin raised an eyebrow at the password. 'What is it with this place and odd passwords, anyway?' he asked his new friends. Both just shrugged. Celestin blew out a sigh and followed them through the hole that the painting had revealed.

Celestin looked around at the room they had now entered. It seemed like they had come into some kind of round common room. The walls were a calm sky blue, lined by tapestries that looked hundreds of years old. Warm silver-glowing lights brightened the room considerably. There was an ornate looking mantelpiece, a fire flickering comfortingly in the grate, while there were a few low armchairs scattered in front of the fire. Next to a window that was overlooking the lake – which looked more like a storm sea just then – was a long table surrounded by chairs which were obviously for study purposes. The ceiling was high with an eagle painted up there in bronze, its wings outstretched. Celestin let out a long, low whistle.

Cho began to direct the first year girls through the door that would lead into their dormitories.

'Yeah, I suggest you don't go up there,' Anthony said with a slight wince. 'There's some doozy of a trap if a boy tried to go in there.'

Celestin's eyes widened slightly and he whipped round to look at the boy. 'You didn't!'

'He bloody well did,' grouched Terry as he led them up a staircase towards the boy's dormitories. 'You should have seen the commotion that made!' Flitwick was furious.'

Celestin didn't know whether to groan or laugh. Just what was he getting himself into?

The young assassin was pleasantly surprised by the dormitory layout. They had entered a curricular shaped room (they had to be in one of the towers) with a thick plush, dark blue carpet. The outer walls were lined with large, queen-sized four-poster beds, the hangings and curtains also in a rich Ravenclaw blue velvet. Their trunks had already been brought up from the train.

'Hey, look!' Anthony said with a laugh, pointing to one of the beds with a trunk in front of it, baring the name "Harry Potter". 'Dumbledore must have had a premonition. He's got you a new bed up here and everything!' he smirked at Terry. 'I told you he was an obvious Ravenclaw.'

Terry, who was clambering into his own bead at the time, looked as if he didn't think the remark deserved a response.

Celestin drew the curtains found his own bed in order to get changed, so that no one else would fret about the scars littering his chest and back. It was too late to take back what Anthony, Zabini and Terry had seen on the train, but he didn't want the entire bloody tower to know about it as well. Even though they were jokers when together, Celestin knew they would at least keep that quiet…at least, for now.

Flopping down on his bed, he arranged a place under his pillow for his wand, just ion case he needed it quickly and lay back into the pillows, arms behind his head as he stared at the canopy of his bed with a slight frown. It seemed as though he already had a few complications in his mission. Snape and Moody both teachers. He already knew that Snape disliked him by association – that is, by being the son of one James Potter. But then there was an over-paranoid ex-Auror who was going to be his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. With that magical eye, it was going to be hard to fool the man into thinking of him like any normal student instead of some potential threat, although he did seem pleased by Celestin'' reaction to his entrance. He grimaced. Which probably meant he was going just as paranoid as the old man.

Now that didn't bode well for his sanity in general

…Or what was left of it, anyway.

Celestin sighed and turned on his side, closing his eyes. For now, it would do no good dwelling on it. What would come would come and all Celestin would be able to do was prepare. Best to think of the solution, not the problem. And the first thing would be to get a good night's sleep. He would need all his wits about him when lesson's started the next day, especially with a well known vindictive teacher who had him on his hit…er…hate list.

Celestin snorted. Nothing's ever easy.

TBC

_Chosha's Notes_

_Hm…I swear I'm getting longer chapters, or is it just me? Anyway, notes time!_

_All right, just to let you know Cho will not have any real significance to Celestin's life – especially not his love life. I just used her for convenience. Secondly, I have no clue where Ravenclaw common room is, so I just made it up. Of course, JK never mentions what Ravenclaw common room or dormitories look like, so I made that up too. What do you think of them? Lastly, if anyone is a Rurouni Kenshin fan, here's a challenge for you. Could you spot the RK quote I used? Extra credit if you can tell me which RK thing it was from (including Samurai X). Just for fun, you know._

_I can't think of anything else to comment on, but if you spot something, you just let me know and I'll do my best to answer. But, either way, please review. I'd love to know what you guys think._

_One last thing to do…_

_Next time on Celestin:_

_New enemies, new allies, and a lot of other interesting happenings including a lesson with Snape. What will he think of this new and improved Potter this time round? Next episode: Hogwarts Perception._

_Well, until then, Ja ne!_

_Chosha Kurenai xXx_


	9. Hogwarts Perception

**Chosha's Notes**

Hey there! Look, I'm alive! Way! Sorry about the long wait on the update of Celestin but a lot has been going on. I didn't have access to the Internet at all over Christmas, and at University I had several assignments that I needed to do. As usual, because I am crap at time keeping, I foolishly left it to the last minute. However, with those out of the way, I thought I'd better get things done. Oh, and I also went into Naruto mode of a while and wanted to give 'Uchiha-Potter' a few chapters. Anyway, enough with the babbling, I'll just get to the important stuff shall I?

**Disclaimer:** although this is an AU, it is still a Harry Potter Fanfiction. But that is all it is – Fanfiction. I do not own any of the characters because of this – except those who do not appear in the Potter books (i.e. Marius Alric)

**Last time on Celestin:**

after being accepted into Ravenclaw house, Celestin realises things could become difficult for him when he finds out that both Snape – his Father's rival and a spy among the death eaters – and Moody – an ex-Auror that would definitely want the death-eater assassin dead – are both teaching at the school. As well as this, Dumbledore announces the Triwizard. The ball is set to roll…

**Chapter Nine**

**Hogwarts perception**

For most people, when you wake up, it is a slow process of floating from the deaths of sleep into the state of wakefulness. However, this had never been the case for Celestin Alric, also known as Harry James Potter. Having grown up constantly in danger or constantly having it drilled into his head about the dangers of an assassin being completely and utterly vulnerable when he slept, Celestin could never allow himself even that small pleasure. So when Celestin woke up in the morning, it was always instantaneous.

Emerald eyes snapped open, instantly taking in his surroundings, detecting any sign or danger. He didn't move, his eyes flickering around to take everything in, his ears straining to hear any sign of movement around him. The first thing he saw was deep blue velvet drapes surrounding a large, yet exceptionally comfortable bed. From somewhere outside the cavern of cloth, Celestin could hear the soft snores of other people, the soft muttering of the occasional voice – male – still asleep, although the exact number of people in the room was unknown.

Celestin blinked a few times in surprise, before what had happened the day before flooded back to him and he groaned, rolling onto his back and throwing his arms over his eyes. _That's right_, he thought glumly, _I let that damn vampire convince me to come to Hogwarts because of the Triwizard tournament, and landed myself with my father's rival and a paranoid ex-Auror as teachers. Joy._

He sighed and rolled over again, pushing himself up. His long hair, unbound, trailed over his slim, yet muscular shoulders as he duvet slipped down to his waist, revealing his uncovered chest. He scooped up his contacts from the bedside table and inserted them with years of practice without even batting an eyelash, before he slid his feet from the bed, lazily pushing aside the drapes surrounding his bed, surveying the rounded dormitory of the fourth-year Ravenclaws.

The room was filled with several other beds, all covered by luxurious royal-blue drapes, none of which were drawn yet. He tilted his head for a moment and listened to the sounds coming from within them, yet none of them made any signs of waking. He glanced out the window and grimaced slightly. The sun had barely started peaking up above the forbidden forest, casting an eerie pink glow. For Celestin, this was a normal time to wake up to train, but for the average civilian, it was still much too early. Celestin let out a breath of a chuckle, slipped on a pale tank top and slipped out of the room to the common room. Letting his eyes glide over the furniture and pictures he had seen the night before, Celestin made sure no one would be eavesdropping on him (whether human or painting) as he moved into a space close to the portrait hole for a quick escape, just in case.

'Tch,' Celestin murmured softly, shaking his head. _It's not ideal,_ he thought,_ but until I learn the layout of this place a little better and find somewhere more suited, I'll have to put up with it – if I don't get caught first. _

He closed his eyes and let out a soft breath, before he started his usual morning routine. He started with the normal stretches, then dropped to the floor to begin push-ups and sit-ups with efficient, sure movements. That done, he began on some basic kata to make sure he didn't get rusty while posing as a student. God only knew what would happen if Celestin didn't keep up practice and was placed in a life or death situation. As the death eater assassin had proved time and again, relying entirely on magic could get you killed. He continued until he was breathing hard and a slight sheen of sweat covered his body. Finishing the final move, he began to slow down, moving fluidly from deadly moves to the softer cool down ones. His eyes were closed as he concentrated on his breathing until it became normal once more.

Standing still in the middle of the room, he let the quiet wash over him for a moment, before he glanced out of the window again, judging the time. During his workout, the sun had risen past the tops of the trees of the forest and was now spilling the early morning gold across the still slightly misty grounds. From what he could tell, it was already coming to about six in the morning.

He let out a slight snort as he finished, tossing raven strands over his shoulder as he glanced towards the dormitories once more. Still no sign of movement. He shook his head in exasperation. _Civilians! I swear, one of these days it's that laziness that'll get them killed…_ But he just sighed and spirited back up to the bedroom to grab some of his clothes from his trunk, striding back towards the bathroom as he heard the first of the earlier risers stirring with a slight chuckle and shake of his head. He'd never understand that. Still, at least he got the shower before all the hot water was used up!

Locking the door, he quickly showered, taking a moment to enjoy the warm water trickling over his skin, before he dried and clothed himself in his new uniform. Black robes hemmed in blue, a blue and bronze tie and the Ravenclaw badge bearing the eagle of Rowena Ravenclaw – definitely a far cry from his usual muggle-magic mixed clothing and battle-robes. Celestin grimaced slightly, before pushing the thought of how much like a pansy he looked in those robes out of his head as he quickly brushed his unruly long hair and pulled it into his usual low ponytail at the base of his neck. He glanced up at the mirror above the sink as he pulled out a royal blue bandanna and tied it round his head, covering his lightning-bolt shaped scar from the world. He stood, staring quietly at the stoic figure looking back at him for a moment, taking in the emerald green eyes, dangerous and wiry, the slight frown under the blue cloth, before he let a slight smile quirk on his lips.

'Well, I guess Harry Potter must meet and greet the world, and turn it upside-down,' he laughed softly, 'just like I promised, eh, Marius?'

'That's the spirit, deary,' murmured the mirror's sleepy voice.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0 

'Nice of you to join us, Anthony,' Terry said as the shorter boy yawned loudly as he plopped into the seat at the other side of Celestin, promptly let his head slip onto the table – although not before Celestin had snatched his plate from smacking him in the face, his eyes dancing with amusement.

'Sod off, Ter,' came the slightly muffled response.

The three of them were seated in the great hall somewhere at the end of the Ravenclaw table, nearest to the door. Celestin, although he had more or less memorised the route up from the great hall to the common room, had decided not to rise any suspicions – after all, wasn't the Ravenclaw house known for its perceptiveness? – and decided to wait for his new friends. Terry, it seemed, was one of the early risers of the tower and had been the first one to wake up after Celestin had finished getting ready. Anthony, on the other hand, had to have been the laziest. Terry, a boy who introduced himself as Michael Conner – the poor schmuck who sat opposite Anthony during the feast, if Celestin remembered – and himself had spent the better part of an hour trying to get the guy up. But after being swatted away and listening to a long verity of cusses (who'd have though the guy could be so ingenious with his insults? Hell, even Celestin was impressed!) They just left him to it. Celestin was now wondering if, on hindsight, that was a good idea, looking at his half-ruffled appearance.

'Well, now that Anthony is among the living…' Celestin glanced at Tony again, 'er, sort of, what were you saying about classes?'

'Yes, as I was saying,' Terry said, buttering some toast and promptly tapping Anthony on the back of the head, passed them to the boy, who perked up immediately. 'Classes depend on our timetables that our head of house'll give us in a bit – though it might take a while, considering.' Celestin wasn't about to argue when said head of Ravenclaw house was only a foot taller than Bede back home and could barely look over the table. 'Sometimes we have shared lessons with the other houses. Like in Herbology, we always seem to share with the Slytherins, care of magical creatures with the Hufflepuffs, Astronomy with the Gryffindors, that sort of thing.'

'Interesting,' Celestin muttered. 'So there aren't any classes with all of us together?'

'Nah,' Anthony said round his toast. 'Only happened once in our second year, when that moron Lockhart was our teacher and we had a Duel class. It was a disaster, wasn't it, Ter.'

'Exactly,' the taller boy looked over to Anthony lazily. 'Nice to see your mind caught up with your body…what little of it you have anyway.'

'Hey! That wasn't very nice…'

'True though.'

Anthony pouted, crocodile tears jumping into his eyes. 'Fine, pick on the little guy…you…you meanie!'

'I'm hurt,' Terry said dryly. He looked over at Celestin slyly. 'Besides, that one won't quite work anymore, since Harry here is shorter than you.'

Celestin choked slightly on his own toast, surprised that he had been dragged into the argument, then groaned as he realised just what they had said to get him involved. He let his head hit the table. 'Why does everyone have to comment on my size?' he mumbled. 'It's not like it's my fault…'

'You'll get used to it!' Anthony chirruped.

Celestin gave him a mock glare. 'At least I have more than half a brain cell, Goldstein.'

'Ouch.'

'Got you there, Tony,' Terry chuckled slightly, letting Anthony pout.

The conversation, or verbal sparing, was finally halted when the tiny Professor – Flitwick if Celestin remembered correctly, finally reached their table, a stack of timetables in his arms. Immediately, they fixed their attention on the teacher.

'Goldstein, here you are,' Flitwick squeaked, his voice rather high-pitched and bird-like as he handed Anthony his timetable. 'Boot, there's yours' Terry took his with a small thanks. Flitwick glanced at the name on the next one and squeaked excitedly. 'Harry Potter!' his voice sounded breathless, and he looked at him as if he was meeting the Minister of Magic himself. Celestin grimaced and forced himself to stay seated and not bolt out of the room as his instincts were telling him.

'Here,' he said quietly, trying not to flinch at the elated look on the small professor's face.

Thankfully for Celestin and his sanity (or what was left of it, he added mentally) Flitwick pulled himself together and handed Celestin his timetable, but not without at least telling him, "welcome back to the Wizarding world". Celestin took his timetable with a small smile. 'Um, sure. Thanks.'

As the tiny professor moved on to the next few people, Celestin studied his timetable. Anthony glanced over his shoulder.

'Hey, you've almost got the same timetable as I do!' He exclaimed, looking from his to Celestin's and back again. He spotted something and frowned. "You're not doing Divination either? Damn, I thought I might at least get a Divination partner.'

'Well, why did you choose it in the first place, moron?' Terry asked with a sigh, shaking his head. 'You don't believe in Divination anyway!'

'Because I thought it would be easy,' Anthony said grumpily. 'Trelawney's as big fraud anyway, you know that. She wouldn't be able to tell the future even if it hit her in the face with one of her crystal balls!'

Celestin wisely decided to keep his mouth shut about the fact that Prophecies were real, and that there was once concerning himself that Trelawney had made while in the hold of a seer-trance. After all, no one was meant to know about that Prophecy. Who knew what damage could be caused if Voldemort got his hands on it?

However, even if prophecies and such were real, Celestin knew damned well that he hadn't got a seer bone in his body. Marius had tried to see if he had while they were in France once with a local Seer, but that had been close to disastrous. He grimaced as he remembered what happened that time. Celestin had fallen asleep five times, choked on the tealeaves that hadn't settled properly in the bottom of his cup and almost broke the poor seer's crystal ball by knocking it off the table. In the end the seer almost had a mental breakdown and was foretelling his own death in a very hopeful voce. So what if he was only eight at the time – it was just plain embarrassing!

'Then why don't you just drop it like that Granger girl in Gryffindor?' Terry was asking. Celestin pulled himself away from those memories to get back to the conversation at hand. 'At least _she_ had the sense to. Sometimes I wonder how you got into Ravenclaw.'

'This was the girl who was taking Muggle studies even though she's a Muggleborn,' Anthony pointed out.

'Makes it an easy subject I guess,' Celestin said as he pondered over his timetable.

'Then why'd she drop it?' Anthony said.

'If you'd use your ears, Weasley half yelled it last year that Granger was doing more subjects than normal. It couldn't have been healthy to take that many subjects. I'm guessing she did it so she didn't burn her self out.'

'Oh yeah…'

'Idiot. So, what did you take instead?' Terry asked, turning to Celestin, ignoring the currently spluttering Anthony for the moment.

'Ancient Ruins,' Celestin said. 'A lot of powerful magics were made through ruins years and years ago – it seemed kind of interesting.'

'Well, at least someone has some sense,' Terry said, not reacting to Anthony's "Hey!" and, seeing Celestin's slightly questioning look, added, 'I took that as well. It's quite interesting. Are you sure you'll be able to keep up with the class though? You have missed a year of it.'

'I wouldn't worry,' Celestin said with a slight wave of his hand. 'After all, I did tell you I was home schooled.'

'What are these for?' Anthony asked, pointing to the places in his timetable that both he and Terry had blank spaces for breaks. Celestin glanced down too; noting it stated "Independent study". Obviously these were the time slots that McGonagall had given to him for Animagus training, not that he could tell them that.

'It's to make sure that I'm keeping up with the school curriculum,' Celestin lied easily.

'But I thought you8 just said you could keep up because your home schooled,' Anthony said accusingly.

Celestin rolled his eyes. 'When you're home schooled, you don't always learn things in the same order that you do in large schools like Hogwarts,' Celestin said slowly, as if talking to a child. 'Professor McGonagall, Headmaster Dumbledore and I discussed it, and they decided to give me a few sessions, just to make sure I can keep up with everything.'

'Oooooooh…'

'Hey, you, Harry Potter!' interrupted a voice. Blinking, Celestin looked up from his timetable and glanced over his shoulder to see the redheaded Gryffindor, Ron Weasley, if he remembered rightly, flanked by two other boys – a dark-skinned boy and a sandy haired one. Ron Weasley was standing extremely close to him, leaning over him as he gave him a hard stare. Celestin didn't so much as blink at having his personal space invaded. However, Terry and Anthony weren't so un-flapped. Terry frowned. 'What do you want, Weasley?'

'I want to talk to this guy, not you, Terry. Can't you tell he's an impostor?'

Celestin allowed himself to blink at that. '…I think you lost me at that point. What do you mean?'

Ron turned back to Celestin; his frown deepening and he prodded at his chest. 'You can't be Harry Potter,' the redhead said darkly.

Celestin raised an eyebrow. 'And you worked that out how, exactly?'

'Well, first off, Harry Potter wouldn't associate with Slytherins! Not when they are all from dark families.'

'I don't know about Zabini's family, but Daphne at least isn't from a dark family – she's my cousin. Unless you forgot, the Boot family was a Light family,' Terry said icily, looking rather offended that Ron had said such a thing.

'I think I can associate with whomever I want,' Celestin said lightly, not really wanting to make enemies. But as he had already said, he would rather not get stuck in the middle of a house war. After all, he liked Daphne and Zabini. 'There's nothing wrong with ambition – after all, if we aren't ambitious to a healthy degree, we won't amount to very much, or even get a job. As with cunning – it can be useful in many little ways. Having that doesn't make you dark. Besides, just because a family is dark, or one person from that house was dark doesn't mean everyone is. After all,' he added lightly, although his emerald eyes hardened, 'the person who betrayed my parents to Voldemort was from Gryffindor, I recall.'

Ron flinched (along with the rest of the Gryffindors and all the Ravenclaws within hearing distance) at the use of Voldemort's name. Hissed whispers of amazement spread amongst those close by. Ron spluttered for a moment at Celestin's statement, eyes wide as Celestin calmly sipped his drink, before he managed to pull himself together. He jabbed a finger in Celestin's chest again. Celestin sighed as Ron snapped, 'And another thing – Harry Potter has a scar'

Celestin couldn't help but feel amused at Ron persistence, 'I have many scars, Ron. Was there a particular place you had in mind?'

Anthony hid a gauff at that. Ron scowled at him, 'On his forehead. It was a curse scar, and everyone knows you can't hide a curse scar!'

'Good deduction,' Celestin said musingly, 'but I'm afraid that is a wrong assumption.' He unwound his bandanna and pulled it off, pushing back his bangs to reveal the still-red scar. 'The last time we met I never showed it to you.' He tied the blue cloth around his head once more, ignoring the slack expression on the Weasley's face. 'I think that last time we met my hair was most likely covering it. After all, there is rather a lot, wouldn't you say?'

Ron's face flushed, whether from the reminder of the incident where they met, the fact Celestin had protected him from the ministry's stunners or from the obvious answer to the accusation, he didn't know. However, it looked like his friends weren't deterred. 'How do we know it isn't make-up or something?' the sandy haired boy asked, glaring.

'You're being even more stupid than normal, Seamus,' Anthony said, still hiding a slight chuckle. "Seamus" whirled on him immediately, scowling as Anthony sighed, shaking his head mournfully. 'You know perfectly well that you can't draw on something that looks like it was cut into your head and make it took like a real curse scar – even Ronald knows that.'

Celestin shrugged, having lost interest by this point and didn't really feel like having to fight civilians first thing in a morning. Now looking back at his timetable again, munching on his toast, he said simply. 'It's not like I care. Believe what you want. I am who I am; nothing can change that – not even if you think otherwise. Now, if you're done interrogating me, do you think I could finish my breakfast? Unlike you guys, I do need to learn my way around this place for my lessons and everything…'

'Morning, Terry, Anthony, Harry,' said a voice and Celestin glanced back around to see Daphne, followed closely by a stoic-looking Zabini, had come up behind the three Gryffindors (who jumped at the sudden noise and spun around at the unexpected sound). 'It says on our timetables that Slytherins have got Herbology with the Ravenclaws today, so we thought that we'd walk down with you. You don't mind, do you, cuz?'

'It's fine,' Terry said, downing his drink and ignoring the irritated "Hey!" coming from one of the Gryffindors. 'We were just about to go down anyway.'

'Well, perhaps we can finish this…interesting discussion another time, hm?' Celestin said to the Gryffindors, not wanting to antagonise them too much. 'But I'm sure you don't want to be late for your lessons either, so, Adios.' And with a quick nod in their direction, Celestin made his way out of the hall with his four friends, ignoring the three spluttering Gryffindors he left behind.

**0C0**

Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff, taught Herbology out in the greenhouses. For Celestin's first class that he attended at Hogwarts, Herbology was quite an easy start in comparison to his training and tutoring amongst Marius and his worldwide associates. However, although it was easy going in comparison (and lets face it, when having a powerful Vampire almost chopping your arm off in sword-practice, having homicidal divination teachers, trying not to be blown up by a nutty potions-master and learning Astronomy from a sort tempered centaur who would rather buck you into the river than have you question the why's of his fortunes and learning Care of magical creatures by said magical creatures, anything could be thought of as easy-going.) Celestin didn't find it very endearing. As soon as the odd group of three Ravenclaws and two Slytherins joined the rest of the group, Professor Sprout held up the ugliest plant that even Celestin had ever seen. They looked like vertical slugs producing from the soil and even wriggled like one. The only reason Celestin hadn't just assumed they were overly large flesh-eating slugs was the fact that they had many little swellings on it, filled with some sort of liquid.

'Bubotubers,' Sprout told them briskly, 'They need squeezing. You will collect the pus in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves – it can do funny things to the skin, Bubotuber pus.' And she showed them the correct way of "Extracting the Pus"

'Nice,' said Zabini sarcastically, his nose wrinkling against the petroleum smell it gave off. Terry looked a little green next to him, holding the plant as far away from him as possible.

'Clears the airways,' Celestin joked, although he had to cough a few times. He decided that this was probably quite low on the "things-I-would-like-to-do" scale. Daphne gagged slightly at the squelching yellowish-green liquid oozing from the burst swelling, but steeled herself to do it.

'I think I'm gonna be sick…' Anthony muttered, covering his mouth and nose with a free hand.

About halfway through the "Lesson", Celestin was once more interrupted in what he was doing. His time it was by a pale blond boy and two rather large and mean-looking boys that reminded Celestin a little of Bouncers outside of clubs in the muggle world. The blond boy looked Celestin over from head to toe and then nodded with a smirk. Daphne twitched.

"Hello Greengrass,' the boy said, her movement having caught his eye. 'It looks like you have some taste in friends after all.'

Daphne growled slightly. 'What do you want, Malfoy?' She snapped.

'I've just come to congratulate your friend for putting that Weasley,' he sneered the name, 'in his place.' He turned back to Celestin, blatantly ignoring Daphne's remark about him needing to be pulled down a few pegs too. 'So, what we've all been told is true then?' the blond boys said smoothly. 'Harry Potter has returned from a thirteen year absence and has come to Hogwarts.'

Celestin sighed, suddenly feeling the urge to bang his head against something rather hard…repeatedly. It had only been two days back in the wizarding world and using his real name and already Celestin liked using the name as much as he'd like to catch the bubonic plague.

Deciding against his rather childish urge to say, "Well duh!", Celestin just looked in the blonde boy's direction and gave him a curt nod. 'So it seems,' he replied offhandedly, eyeing the newcomers carefully. If the three boys before were Gryffindor's infamous "golden-trio", then these three must be the Slytherins that Daphne, Zabini, Terry and Anthony had warned him about, the middle one being Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy's son. Immediately, behind his relaxed appearance, he was on guard. However, he decided he would play the innocent for now. 'You seem to know who I am, but…?' he left the question hanging.

The blonde one, although frowning slightly from Celestin's almost-as-irritating-as-saying-well-duh answer, took the hint straight away. 'Oh yes. That is Crabbe,' he nodded over his shoulder at one of his "bodyguards", 'and that is Goyle. And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.'

Celestin nodded in acknowledgement when each name was said, before turning back to Malfoy. 'Oh. Hello. Nice to meet you, Malfoy.' He turned back to what he was doing. 'Could you pass me another of those pods, Zabini?' Celestin had a role to play. It didn't mean that he had to become all chummy with this boy, however. When there was himself and people who acted like Malfoy in one room together, people usually ended up dead. He would rather avoid that. You know, it wouldn't look good on his CV after school, would it?

Zabini shot him a surprised look at the quick introduction and the rather obvious and slightly abrupt finish to his side of the conversation. From the way Crabbe and Goyle exchanged glances and the way Malfoy's eyes widened slightly before narrowing, his face flushed pale pink, this was a rare occurrence for anyone to brush him off, however politely, even during class.

Malfoy frowned at him. 'We're not finished talking, Potter.' His voice was clipped, obviously annoyed with the dismissal.

'Oh, sorry,' Celestin said, only flickering his eyes towards the blonde momentarily before they fixed on the pod he was currently squeezing once more. 'I didn't mean to be rude, but aren't we supposed to be doing something just now? Besides,' Celestin continued mildly. 'I don't see what I did wrong exactly for you to be so rude yourself. You introduced yourself and, as you already knew my name, there didn't seem much point in re-introducing myself, was there? Anyway I acknowledged you and spoke to you, and that was about it. There wasn't anything else to say just now. Besides," Celestin shrugged, then pointed to the pod in his hand. 'We're kinda in class at the moment. Would you rather I drop everything just to exchange a few words and get us both into trouble? I didn't think you'd appreciate that, somehow.'

'Indeed, but Sprout wont say anything just now. After all, I'm just offering guidance to our newest student.' Obviously Malfoy couldn't make fault with his claim, so seemed willing to give Celestin a chance to "redeem himself", his arrogant air restored, confidant that, whatever happened, he wouldn't get the blame. Celestin fought the sudden urge to roll his eyes. Where the encounter with the Gryffindors had amused him, having this as well was just plain exasperating. 'Anyway, since you're new here, Potter, you probably wouldn't know how things work around here just yet. After all, some of us here are a little more important. You see, I'm not some poor no name idiot like that Weasley and his band of merry dorks. I'm a Malfoy. You need to be careful what you say around people like my family and I, if you know what I mean.'

Celestin stopped what he was doing and fully turned to the blonde, looking up at him from his place on the bench, tense and ready despite looking indifferent and lazy. 'And, pray tell, why should the fact that you're a Malfoy change how I should or shouldn't act?' he asked lightly.

Malfoy seemed to loose his stride slightly at that. His cool grey eyes widened slightly, before he frowned. 'What?'

'Should I be giving you some sort of special treatment because you are a Malfoy?' Celestin asked. 'Or perhaps because you're a Slytherin, maybe?' he continued. He hoped Daphne and Zabini wouldn't be too offended by that, but he wanted to make a point. 'Family doesn't make a person,' Celestin said calmly. 'Nor does house. For instance, a person from Gryffindor may have the potential to be brave and heroic, but it doesn't mean they won't think, or that they will use that bravery when the circumstance arrives. Likewise a Ravenclaw may have knowledge, but it doesn't mean that they will go out and use it. Likewise a Hufflepuff may be loyal, but to whom are they loyal to? And a Slytherin may have ambition, but it doesn't mean that they will ever reach it. It's the same with family. Your family may be rich, or well respected, but that doesn't automatically transfer to you. If you want my respect, Malfoy, you'll have to earn it.' _Because I bow to no one, _Celestin thought vehemently._ I respect those who deserve it, because they earned it, not because of some family rep. The sooner you learn that, Malfoy, the sooner you may save yourself from the "death-eater assassin's" wrath, should that day come. Like I said to Marius, if you follow them, I'll show no mercy, even to a child._

Zabini stared at his as if it was the first time he had seen him, Anthony and Daphne looking at him in awe, while even the more stoic Terry raised his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards at the blatant dismissal. Unfortunately, Malfoy didn't see the humour in it and his eyes narrowed.

'You really need to watch that mouth of yours.' He said at length, darkly. 'If you're not politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They never did know what was good for them.'

At that, Celestin turned around so fast that the others couldn't follow, a dark smile spreading over his face, which was almost nose to nose with Malfoy. He jerked back minutely. 'Really. I'd very much like to see him try.' Suddenly, his expression lightened and it was as if that smirk had never been there. Celestin smiled harmlessly. 'I think we should be getting back to work. I don't think Professor Sprout would be very happy with us. First impressions and all, right, Malfoy?'

Yes, and what an impression he was leaving already…

**0C0**

The rest of Celestin's morning was pretty much unremarkable, unless of course you counted all of the students who blatantly stared at him as he passed until he felt more paranoid than even Moody, the sharp, slightly bitter glances from Malfoy or Ron or one of his friends muttering under their breaths that he might be a fake. However, Celestin ignored the stares and Ron's grumbles were pretty much ignored by everyone anyway. He guessed they were still a little awestruck that the Harry Potter was still alive and, apparently, in very good health. Still, he was hoping the shock would wear off soon; otherwise he may blow his cover by killing half of them just to stop the stares.

_Marius must be laughing his socks off at me right now_, Celestin thought grumpily as he followed Terry and Anthony to the dungeons for their next lesson, this time with the Hufflepuffs. _I bet he knew this would happen when he told me to use my true identity. Bloody Vampire._

However, Celestin allowed himself a breath of a sigh before he pushed that to the back of his head. There was no point worrying about it just yet. After all, he was sure he could come up with an… interesting revenge the next time he saw his guardian. Hopefully something to do with lots of sun and a whole load of garlic.

Right now, Celestin was on his way down to Potions with his Ravenclaw companions. He had both been quiet looking forwards to, and yet felt some foreboding about this lesson. Looking forwards to it because, although Potions wasn't Celestin's best subjects, it was one that still fascinated him after he had trained with another of Marius' associates. He was also half-dreading it, because the person who would be teaching this lesson was none other than one of the two professors who were on his 'to-watch-out-for' list.

Severus Snape.

Lovely. Nice to know that his first day at Hogwarts also had him facing the man who absolutely despised his father. No doubt the man would be terrible to him as well. Old grudges die hard. He of all people knew that.

It also wasn't every encouraging when Zabini had clapped him on the back in condolence and Daphne had given them all a look of sympathy when they had left the two of them after lunch. Anthony just looked green and was currently rambling to an increasingly irritated Terry that he needed to see Madam Pomfrey and was pretending to faint and such in an effort to get out of the class. In the end, Terry just whacked the smaller boy over the head and hissed that if he didn't let go of his robes then he would be forced to curse him. Celestin just shook his head in amusement as he watched their antics.

The dungeons were cool, dark and slightly damp in places and Celestin was sure he saw a few shiver slightly from the cool air. Some drew their robes a little closer around themselves. Ignoring the cold as easily as he did his emotions during a battle, Celestin took his time to observe the classroom itself. Dark and dank as the rest of the dungeons, it was about as inviting as a prison cell, even more so with the various body parts pickled in jars around the shelves. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see several of the more nervous students shuffle a little closer, one girl with a round face and pigtails outright shivered.

'C'mon, its better to sit in the middle here,' Anthony said in a surprisingly hushed voice as he took hold of Celestin's robes and tugged him to one of the bench-tables near the centre of the room. 'The closer you sit to the front or back, the more likely Snape is to pick on you.'

Celestin blinked at that as Terry didn't say anything, even along the lines of being a paranoid idiot like he had been expecting, instead just leading the way to one of the tables and immediately pulling out his quill, parchment and cauldron. Celestin couldn't help but wonder what this Snape must be like in real life if it stopped these two from their, what seemed to be, customary play-arguments.

It wasn't long before he found out.

Bang!

Several students jumped as the classroom door bounced slightly off the wall from the force as Snape himself stalked into the room, his jet-black robes billowing out behind him as he walked, as if moved by an unseen wind. If Celestin were anyone else, he would have guessed that Snape had a perchance in dramatics. But then again, Celestin was no normal person. He could easily recognise intimidation tactics when he saw them. After all, as an assassin, intimidation was his forte.

Snape looked over the room with onyx eyes before going straight to the register and began calling off the names. Short, sharp, he barked out the last name and the student would jump and squeak out a 'Yessir!' before Snape moved on. Said student practically deflated in relief when Snape passed to the next person. This continued all down the list until Snape reached a certain name.

'Well, well, if it isn't our long lost hero,' Snape said, tauntingly, his mouth twisting slightly. 'Mr Harry Potter.'

Celestin could feel every pair of eyes spin towards him, but he ignored them if favour of locking his gaze unwaveringly with the onyx eyes of the Potion's professor. It was like looking into a pair of endless tunnels, dark, icy - cold as stone. Just like in the great hall, Celestin felt a faint probing as his mind and he strengthened his shields to near titanium levels.

A crease appeared between the professor's eyebrows, but it was the only reaction he had to being blocked out of his mind. Celestin found it rather interesting that Snape was trying to get into his mind at all. After all, he was just a student. What would any normal fourteen-year-old student think about? Certainly nothing that the Professor would be interested in, unless he was a closet gossip or something. _Did he do this with all his students, or is it just that I'm special?_ Celestin wondered. _Does Albus know about this? After all, there are laws against using Legilimancy on minors. Although I guess I should understand. I just appeared out of nowhere to attend Hogwarts, and Snape was a spy once. Like me, he is not about to let me off Scot free until he figures out if I'm a threat or not. Still, it doesn't mean I'm about to let him waltz into my mind so easily. I've got a job to do._

'Well then, Potter, let's see if you'll actually be able to keep up with the class, shall we?' Snape sneered at him finally, fixing him with a scrutinising glare. Celestin kept his face impassive, his body both relaxed and somehow tense at the same time. The look in the man's eyes put his assassin instincts on edge.

'Potter, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'

'Draught of Living Death, sir,' Celestin fired back with no hesitation. The silence in the class was palpable. Even Snape blinked. Obviously Snape hadn't realised that Celestin was anything but a greenhorn in his class. Even though Harry Potter was new to the Wizarding world after a thirteen year absence, Celestin Alric was not.

'Where would I find a bezoar?' the man snapped, recovering quickly, although he still eyed him in a way that one would with an easy-looking jigsaw that was harder to solve than it looked. He also stepped up his Legilimency, pressing harder against Celestin's shields.

'Inside the stomach of a goat,' Celestin replied evenly. He kept his face blank as possible, not making any movement to show that he was even aware that Snape was pushing against his shields. It felt as though he was trying to prise it with a vice. But Celestin was used to it – his shields stood firm.

'What is the difference between monkshood and Wolfsbane?'

'Nothing sir, they are the same plant. Muggle botanists call it aconite.'

'What is the most popular use of armadillo bile?'

'That would be the Wit-Sharpening potion,' Celestin said, almost boredly. Snape's eyebrows raised slightly, before he could cover it up, although Celestin was sure only he caught the slight change in expression. Next to him, he could feel Terry and Anthony shoot him surprised looks. After all, the aforementioned was a Hogwarts fourth year potion – they hadn't even studied it in class yet.

'Ashwinder eggs?' Snape continued, watching Celestin closely. There was another sharp thrust at his shields.

'Love potions, professor. They need to be frozen, otherwise the potion wont work.' He added. The look on Snape's face was almost unreadable now.

'Powdered moonstone and syrup of hellebore, Potter. What potion uses both ingredients?'

'That would be the Draught of Peace, sir.' Snape was trying to trip him up with much more advanced material than Celestin should actually be able to know, even if he had studied at Hogwarts for the full three years that he normally would have done, had he not been training with Marius. He had to wonder what the man was trying to prove, but right now, Celestin couldn't help but toy with the man a little, especially if Snape insisted on toying with him.

'Pomegranate juice?'

'Strengthening solution, sir.'

'When must fluxweed be gathered to be useful for potion making?'

'During the full moon, sir,' Celestin replied. Snape's face was darkening and the class had gone utterly silent. Even the more diligent of Ravenclaws had stopped taking notes in favour of watching the scene, there eyes bouncing from Snape to Celestin and back again as if watching a tennis match. However, Celestin kept his eyes fixed on Snape.

'What are the uses of ginger root, Mr. Potter?'

'I believe it's also used in the Wit-Sharpening potion. Oh, and it's good in Chinese stir-fry.' He added thoughtfully.

There was a choke and a quill clattered to the floor somewhere close by in shock.

That got a furious glare from Professor Snape, who continued to fire questions at Celestin for more than fifteen minutes. Celestin had a steadily worsening tension headache, but managed to answer each question in turn, trying not to sigh. Finally, the professor appeared to have grown as tired of his game as Celestin was.

'What are jobberknoll feathers used for?'

'I believe that would be memory potions, sir.' He was dying to add "Are we finished yet? Because it'll be the end of the lesson if you don't get on to actually teaching." However, he kept his jaw shut.

'Like the one you took before this class, Potter?' the professor snapped. 'How else do you explain your encyclopaedic knowledge of potion ingredients? Decided to show off in front of your peers? Grab a little limelight?'

'Not at all,' Celestin responded coolly, feeling somewhat pleased with himself at finally trying the teacher's patience. Although unbecoming of an assassin like himself, Celestin wasn't about to be respectful to someone who would not stop trying to get into his head. 'You asked me if I would be able to keep up with the class. As it is, I had had a tutor in potions several years ago and stayed with him for a year or more. As it was, I also had his pride on the line and his intelligence was questioned.'

'A tutor?' Snape said, clearly disbelieving. 'Nonsense Potter! If you had had a tutor to learn that level of potions in a year, then you wouldn't have been classified as missing in the wizarding world, now would you.'

Celestin shrugged, not particularly caring that the man was glaring at him incredulously and everyone was deathly silent, straining to hear every single word. 'My guardian gave me a new name of "Celestin" and that was what I was known as by my tutor.'

'Oh yes, and who is this so called tutor of yours?' the Potions master was now towering over him. Celestin looked up at him impassively.

'Nicholas Flamel.' He said simply.

Utter…silence…

'…What!' Snape said sharply. Of course, in the potion's world, Nicholas Flamel was an almost legendary figure. After all, he was the one who had created the Philosophers stone with Albus as his lab partner decades ago, long before Marius had taken him to meet with the man. They had, of course, extracted an unbreakable vow with the man that he would not inform anyone about this unless they had the permission of either Marius or himself. Being a good friend of Marius, Nicholas had agreed wholeheartedly and taught Celestin everything he knew for the whole year they had stayed in Devon when Celestin was ten before their trip to Japan. He had never known anyone so passionate about potions as that man. He gave the words 'nutty Professor' a new meaning. Still, he had been a little sad to hear that his life's work had been destroyed and that his old mentor had only a little of his elixir setting things in order, but he knew he and his wife were quite looking forwards to the 'next great adventure'. Celestin wasn't religious in any way – what kind of god would an assassin prey to? – but if there was a next adventure, he was sure that the old coot would be ready to discover it…

A sound of disbelief came that came from Snape brought Celestin back to the present.

'Impossible!' Snape snapped.

'Not impossible, just highly improbable.' Celestin interjected. 'Nicholas was a wise mentor and a good man and he loved his work. Almost blew up the house once.' Celestin mused with a slight smile, his eyes far away as he remembered how that turned out. Marius almost flipped. Although Nicholas' wife made the Vampire's anger look like a breeze in comparison when she caught sight of the old man and himself. He mentally chuckled. 'Penelope was a kind and generous woman with a wicked temper at times and was really protective as well. Managed to stop him from getting too carried away with his work. As it is, I was sorry to learn that his life's work was destroyed. I'll miss them.'

The Potions master held Celestin's gaze a little longer, a slight frown on his face as if trying to see if he was telling the truth. His Legilimancy once more brushed at his shields, but this time, Celestin permitted him to detect the truth of his words, nothing more. They stared at each other for a moment longer, before Snape frowned at him, a mixture of puzzlement and…something else flickering through his eyes, before he finally gave Celestin a short, sharp nod.

Celestin read it easily. _Keep your secrets for now,_ it said. _I know_ _you're hiding something._

Celestin returned the nod, making his own intent clear in his eyes. _You can try. But you may not like what you find. Do not confuse me with my Father, Professor. It would not be wise. There is, after all, a reason why the hat did not place me in Gryffindor._

"Very well," Snape sneered finally. "Let's just hope that you can live up to that reputation, Mr Potter. I look forwards to seeing how well you fare, when it comes to practical application. After all, even a block head like Longbottom can recite from a book."

Around them, Celestin could almost feel the student body give a great sigh when Snape finally shot Celestin one last, and yet unreadable expression, before he swept around to his desk, his black cloak swishing out behind him.

Snape eyed Celestin with an almost blank expression, but Celestin could see the rather stunned look in his eyes. However, he masked it well – after all, he was once a spy. Like Celestin himself, he would have to keep every emotion controlled if he was to pass off any act undetected. Celestin was sure that only he could see the emotions behind his mask. And he could see them flicker in the dark pits of his eyes as he watched them busy with their potions - surprised by how he acted, stunned by his revelation of his rather legendary potion's tutor and annoyed by Celestin's 'arrogance', as he would no doubt call it. Still, he had to wonder what the man was thinking, as he left the classroom for dinner later on, conscious of the dark, coal-like eyes in a frowning face boring holes into his back.

'Harry, I'm starting to think you like scaring the pants off of us,' Anthony gasped out as soon as they were out of hearing range of the dungeons. 'I've never seen Snape look so disturbed!'

**TBC **

**Chosha's Notes**

Well, there you go. I can't really say that it was my best chapter, but it was sort of a filler chapter anyway to introduce some of the characters. Either way, I hope it was alright, especially after such a long wait. I'll try to hurry with the next chapter, if I don't get caught up on a Naruto roll again. This one was meant to be a little more light hearted, as the story eventually gets darker as it goes on.

If anyone is wondering why Flamel, all I will say is 'why not?' You'll find Marius has many associates and Celestin needs to be the best he can be to fight off death eaters. So, Marius' associates will be very interesting in deed.

Oh, just a bit of random info – did you know that I based Anthony and Terry's characters on Naruto and (good) Sasuke from the Ninja anime 'Naruto'? I know, seems odd thing to do, but as Terry has about a line in all six books so far, and I don't think that Anthony actually has any lines at all, I had to get characters from somewhere.

On another note, for those who have asked about Sirius, I'll just say this – coming soon!

Oh yeah, for those who asked about Celestin's past, I was thinking of doing a companion story to Celestin once this one is finished. It will be called Celestin: Dawn of Blood and will tell of Celestin's past training with Marius. So far, I'm not sure if it will be lots of smaller fics in one story, showing snippets of kid-Celestin's life, or if it will be a full fanfic story in chronological order just yet. But we'll see. If anyone does have anything they wish to see happen in Celestin's past, though, please tell me. I might even be able to incorporate it into Celestin or Celestin: Dawn of Blood, when I get around to it.

Just one last thing to take care of before I sign off!

**Next time on Celestin**

As Celestin gets used to Hogwarts, he begins his Animagus training and also has his first lesson with Mad Eye Moody. However, a strange dream of the past brings Celestin to meet with someone who is remarkably similar to him. Next episode: The Prophecy's Other.

But until next time, Ja ne for now!

**Chosha Kurenai xXx**


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